Labour will make us safer

Julian Ware-Lane says: “Labour will make us safer”.

Julian Ware-Lane, Labour’s candidate for Southend West, fully supports Labour's commitment to defence, development, and diplomacy. “I believe that approach is the right one, and it will make us all safer,” he added.

Labour is committed to maintain defence spending at the NATO level of 2 per cent of GDP. Labour also supports the renewal of the Trident submarine system. “This,” Julian argues, “is an issue that has been controversial within the Labour Party since the 1980s”

Dr Vic Hobson, secretary of Southend CND during the 1980s, remembers, “Things were very different then. We had the Cold War: the Warsaw Pact and NATO locked in an arms race. Instead, today we have many smaller nations with nuclear capability. I welcome Labour’s proposed review of defence for the twenty-first century.” It is because of the present threat that Julian fully supports Labour’s manifesto commitment to “fulfill our international obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Labour will lead multilateral efforts with international partners and the UN to create a nuclear free world.”

Julian is pleased that a future Labour government will continue to meet the UK’s commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of GDP on international development. Labour’s manifesto acknowledges that there “are now more refugees and displaced people around the world than any time since the Second World War,” and he is heartened that diplomacy, conflict resolution and of human rights, will be at the heart of Labour’s foreign policy. “We need to continue to work with our European partners after Brexit, and with other international organisations to make the world a safer place.”