LABOUR’S multibillion-pound increase in defence spending was condemned by anti-war groups today following the Chancellor’s “hard choices” in the Budget warning.

Rachel Reeves said there would be a total increase to the Ministry of Defence’s budget of £2.9 billion next year.

She told MPs: “Ensuring the UK comfortably exceeds our Nato commitments and providing guaranteed military support to Ukraine of £3 billion per year, for as long as it takes.”

The funding is reportedly to be used to give soldiers a pay rise backdated to April and buy weapons.

Stop the War Coalition’s Lindsey German told the Star: “This government is addicted to war and yet again money is earmarked for weapons to continue wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

“At a time when it makes ‘hard choices’ to cut pensioners’ fuel allowance and put up bus fares for workers, we can see clearly its priorities.”

Peace Pledge Union’s Geoff Tibbs said that the rise “is an insult to all those struggling during a cost-of-living crisis and diverts funds from underfunded public services.”

He said: “When our schools are crumbling, our hospitals are overcrowded, our wages are stagnating and our water is filthy, it is unconscionable to spend an extra £2.9bn on war and weapons.

“Sadly, this government is continuing in the footsteps of the Tories, wasting ever more money on military spending.”

“The best way for our government to keep us safe would be to actively pursue non-violent solutions to conflict, including a ceasefire in the Middle East, and to invest in tackling the systemic threats we face such as pandemics and the climate crisis,” Mr Tibbs said.

CND general secretary Kate Hudson said: "The military spending announced today has nothing to do with keeping the British public safe and everything to do with marching in lock step with US foreign policy and kowtowing to Nato spending demands.”

“Last week’s quiet acquiescence by most MPs to the extension of the mutual defence agreement, the treaty which underpins Washington and Westminster’s special nuclear relationship, is another indicator of this.

“Next year’s strategic defence review is guaranteed to come dripping with even more demands to spend, spend, spend on grandiose white elephants, packaged in the guise of public security.

“Massive sinkhole projects like a new fleet of nuclear-armed submarines and unfit aircraft carriers will continue to be a drain on public finances with little scrutiny by the media or politicians.

“It’s time to scrap these wasteful and dangerous vanity projects and divert these funds into public good.”