UK workforce can deliver security and growth, says Prospect

Investment in the UK’s skilled workforce will make the country more secure while also helping to deliver growth, says Prospect, as the government publishes its National Security Strategy 2025, which identifies the main threats facing the UK, and how they will be combatted.

Writing in the foreword, the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, says of the changing world:

“Russian aggression menaces our continent. Strategic competition is intensifying. Extremist ideologies are on the rise. Technology is transforming the nature of both war and domestic security. Hostile state activity takes place on British soil. It is an era of radical uncertainty, and we must navigate it with agility, speed and a clear-eyed sense of the national interest.”

The National Security Strategy 2025 can be seen in full here.

Sue Ferns, Prospect Senior Deputy General Secretary, said:

“The National Security Strategy builds on the Strategic Defence Review in setting out where the government needs to focus its spending power in the coming years — and Prospect welcomes the commitments to increased investment the government has made this week.

“Sovereign capability is now rightly at the heart of UK defence policy. That must be backed up a steady drumbeat of work for UK manufacturers, and by a coordinated whole economy strategy on skills.

“We have the opportunity in the coming years to make our country more secure while also driving growth. Unions and the UK’s skilled workforce are well-placed to work with the government and make sure we all reap the benefits of increased defence spending.”