Labour minister handed GB News grilling on defence plan delay as he claims 'no wake up call is required'

Mr Thomas-Symonds assured the Government has "already exceeded its manifesto targets" when it comes to defence spending.

He said: "Increasing spending on defence is very important and we have done that, but the Defence Investment Plan that you're referring to hasn't been finalised yet, it will be finalised for the Nato Summit in July."

Interjecting Mr Thomas-Symonds, Ellie hit back: "We're still waiting on it, aren't we? It was due in autumn of last year!"

He responded: "Well, it's crucial that we get it right. We had the Strategic Defence review, this is about a long term sustainable increase in defence spending, meeting the Nato target of 3.5 per cnet of our GDP spent on defence by 2035.

"So taking this time to get it right is, in my view, crucial. I won't speculate about the final content, I'm not part of those discussions, but I know that the new Defence Secretary, Dan Jarvis, who himself served on the front line, is engaged in those discussions with No10."

Mr Thomas-Symonds added: "That Defence Investment Plan will be published, as I say, in early July, and then of course people can make their judgments."

Reacting to an attack on a British couple by a Russian Navy warship on Tuesday, the Labour minister was pressed on whether the incident will be a "wake up call" for the Government to bolster Britain's defences.

Mr Thomas-Symonds disagreed, telling GB News: "No wake up call is required. This Government has taken the Russian threat seriously throughout the period it's been in office.

"That's why we took the very difficult decision to take money from the overseas development budget and spend it on defence."

Appearing to defend the reasoning for Russia's fired shots, he continued: "Obviously, the Government has been looking to establish the facts of this incident, hugely frightening moments for the couple that were on the yacht.

"But first of all, the shots that were fired were not assault, they were not attack shots, they were shots that were fired in order to ensure that there wouldn't be a collision.

"We believe it is not related to the UK's seizure by the Royal Marines National Crime Agency last weekend of a shadow fleet oil tanker."

The Labour MP assured GB News viewers the British Royal Navy is "monitoring the Russian vessel" in their patrols.

He said: "HMS Mersey, our Royal Navy patrol boat, is actually monitoring what this Russian vessel is doing, and I'm sure all your viewers would want to thank the crew of HMS Mersey for the work they are continuing to do.

"But Vladimir Putin, by the way, should be in no doubt, we see his activity not just in terms of the shadow fleet as we saw last weekend, but the cyber threats, hybrid threats, that and disruptive threats that Russia poses, and it will have a very robust response."

Issuing his response to the incident, Sir Keir Starmer has told GB News the actions by the Russian Navy were "reckless".

He said: "What happened in the Channel is obviously deeply concerning, and I obviously feel for the couple on the yacht. It looks from the MoD assessment as if it was a drifting warship that fired a warning shot.

"That's the assessment; clearly that shouldn't have happened. I think it's reckless, but it does look as if the MoD assessment is it was drifting, and that's what it is."

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