ANTI-WAR campaigners condemned Boris Johnson today for his “unconscionable” decision during the coronavirus pandemic to increase defence spending by £16.5 billion over four years.

The announcement was billed as Britain’s biggest increase in defence spending since the Cold War – the plan will see more spent on defence than any Nato member except the US.

The PM said that he intends for Britain to become Europe’s leading naval power again, with a modernised military and new hi-tech RAF jets with artificial intelligence (AI) and drone technology.

The plans include creating an agency dedicated to AI and a “space command” capable of launching Britain’s first rocket by 2022.

Warships and combat vehicles could be equipped with “inexhaustible” lasers, Mr Johnson suggested in the Commons via video-link, with no prospect of them running out of ammunition.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer welcomed the additional funding, saying that “national security will always be Labour’s top priority.”

His only stated concern was how Mr Johnson’s plan would be paid for.

But Stop the War condemned the “unconscionable” plan. Convener Lindsey German said that the effort to save lives during the Covid-19 pandemic should have priority over the ability to launch rockets into space and “new technologies of mass killing.”

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament general secretary Kate Hudson condemned the government for “spending billions on weapons systems and extending sabre-rattling to outer space” when the outsourced coronavirus test-and-trace system still needs fixing.

She warned that by boosting spending on military and weapons, Mr Johnson would “escalate the risk of a new arms race.” 

Andrew Smith of the Campaign Against Arms Trade said that the announcement, made during the pandemic, was “totally inappropriate.”

“Only a matter of days ago the government was telling us that there wasn’t enough money to feed hungry school students during the holidays, but now it has found an extra £16bn to add to what was already one of the biggest military budgets in the world,” he said.

The Peace Pledge Union (PPU) said that the “perverse” spending plan was more than 53 times the approximate cost – £300 million a year – of extending provision of free school meals into the school holidays in England.

The government has only partially U-turned, after widespread opposition, to provide free school meals during the Christmas break.

Symon Hill of the PPU said that disastrous wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Libya had “taught us that it is unrealistic to imagine you can solve deep-seated problems with bombs.”