Defence secretary Wes Streeting has refused to say whether he trusts US president Donald Trump, insisting “we are in first impressions territory”.
However, in a candid interview with Sky News’ Sir Trevor Phillips the new defence secretary insisted that Europe would thank President Trump for forcing them to take responsibility for their own defence.
Asked if he trusts President Trump, Mr Streeting said: “I don't know him, but I do trust the United States. We're in first impressions territory. I've not even been in the job a week.”
However, he added that history would be kind to Mr Trump over the issue of defence and Europe.
“We don't always like what he says, we don't always like his methods, but I genuinely think when this period of history is written, Europe will thank President Trump for shaking us out of our complacency and forcing us to stand on our own two feet and end the period of over-reliance on the United States for defence.”
He went on: “What he said about Europe isn't unique to President Trump, the MAGA movement or the Republican Party. This has been a long-standing grain of US frustration with Europe under Democratic and Republican presidents.
“And in the world we live in, it is right that we can act to secure ourselves. We can act with our allies here in Europe, and of course work with the United States without being overly dependent to the extent that NATO and Europe has been.”
Mr Streeting also made it clear that the US would remain the UK’s predominant ally in an increasingly hostile world.
“I've always been aware that the alliance between the US and the UK is unlike any in the world, and of course, that's historic, it's cultural, it's political, it's driven by self-interest as well as mutual shared interests.
“But just in my first week as defence secretary, I have had a unique insight into just how close and integral that relationship is when it comes to defence and security.”
Speaking of his first phone call with his US counterpart Pete Hegseth, Mr Streeting said: “I was clear that we've not supported offensive action in Iran, and we won't support offensive action in Iran.
“But there are plenty of things that we can and should do together when it comes to securing the straightforward moves in making sure that Iran doesn't develop nuclear weapons in terms of investing in our capability and NATO's capability.”
The new defence secretary also claimed that he was given the job by Andy Burnham because he had proven when he was health secretary that he is a moderniser focussed on spending money more effectively.
He claimed that with him in the defence brief and former defence secretary John Healey as chancellor, there will be an increase in military spending.
Mr Healey resigned as defence secretary after Sir Keir’s Defence Improvement Plan fell £13bn short and then had a £4.7bn black hole in addition.
Mr Streeting told Sir Trevor: “The chancellor's position is clear. My position is clear. During my brief period of freedom on the backbenches, I was also clear we need to invest more in our defence.
“One of the reasons the prime minister's asked me to do this job is because I'm a moderniser, and because my approach at health was yes to argue for and to win more resources, and I did that, but it was also to make sure the money that was already going in is better spent to make sure.
“In the Ministry of Defence context, there have clearly been long-standing issues with things like defence procurement, value for money.”
Mr Streeting was pressed on his former job as health secretary which he resigned from after the disastrous local election results in May in the hope that it would for Sir Keir Starmer to quit.
Mr Burnham has made fixing social care, which is in the health brief, a priority complaining that past governments had not tried to tackle it head on.
But mr Streeting insisted that the criticism was not of him personally.
He said: “My frustration was I couldn't get social care higher enough on the government's overall agenda, and and that that's a problem because there are two big fundamental questions we need to address.
“One is what is it we think social care should do, and secondly how should it be funded. And successive governments, for reasons I understand, have treated it like the third rail of British politics.
“So one of the things I tried to do with the Louise Casey Commission was to try and build a national consensus about those questions.”
