Mark Francois: I Hope Trump Will Now See Putin For The Murderous Tyrant He Is
8 min read
Mark Francois tells Harriet Symonds about Donald Trump’s tariff war, plans for an Israeli-style ‘Iron Dome’ in the UK and claims Reform has gone AWOL on defence
Mark Francois, a so-called Spartan Brexiteer – one of those MPs who refused compromise to the end – insists we should be grateful for his intransigence.
That the UK was initially hit with a tariff rate half that of the EU by Donald Trump is down to its position outside the bloc, the Conservative MP for Rayleigh and Wickford and shadow defence minister claims.
“Now that we’re outside of the EU we should be maximising our competitive advantage,” he says, urging for a tariff-free US-UK trade deal. “If we could do that, we would be treated to the marvellous sight of the British ambassador to the US, one Lord Mandelson, having to stand outside our embassy in the US capital championing a trade deal because we were able to leave the European Union.”
Francois says the US is still the UK’s best ally, but he acknowledges the damage a full-blown trade war triggered by Trump could yet do. “This would hurt our economy. It would hurt many other global economies, and ultimately, over time, I believe it would hurt the American economy as well,” he says, adding: “History shows that tariff wars tend not to benefit anybody.”
But nine years after the referendum, the
famed trade deal that Brexiteers promised is still nowhere in sight and Britain’s economy has slumped since Brexit. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) estimates Brexit will reduce long-run productivity by four per cent relative to remaining in the EU. A report last year by Cambridge Econometrics said the UK economy was £140bn smaller as a result of Brexit. “Tosh!” exclaims Francois, blaming the sputtering economy on Covid. “All economies shrunk because of Covid, it happened to everybody, not just to the United Kingdom.”
Even before his return to the White House, Trump had been deeply critical of Nato countries for not paying their fair share for defence, casting doubt on his commitment to Article 5. “We should all be increasing our defence spending. So, on that point, Trump is right, and he’s also been consistent about it,” insists the shadow defence minister.
“Article 5 has only ever been invoked once since the Washington Treaty was created, and it was invoked by the United States after 9/11.”
He adds: “It’s important to remind our American allies that they are the only people who ever triggered it – and we turned up.”
Does the United Kingdom need something like the ‘Iron Dome’ against a Russian threat?
Keir Starmer has since committed to boost UK defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2027 – but Tory Party leader Kemi Badenoch has pushed the government to go further, calling for three per cent by 2029, rather than in the following years. “Kemi has said three per cent by the end of this Parliament, so we’re definitely on an upward trajectory. History tells us again and again that we cannot take our security for granted.”
“Judge us by our actions,” says Francois, who served three years as a Ministry of Defence (MoD) minister under David Cameron – but the Tory Party’s credibility on defence has been strained after its 14 years in government ended last year leaving a depleted army and a reduced budget. Figures show defence spending has been cut by nearly £10bn in real terms since the Conservatives came to power in 2010.
“All western democracies are having challenges with recruiting people into their armed forces and particularly retaining them once they’re in. This is not a uniquely British challenge.”
Pointing to the party’s record on Ukraine, he says it was Ben Wallace’s “soldier instinct” to start supplying Ukraine with military hardware. “If Ben Wallace hadn’t done that as a Conservative defence secretary, the Russians would be having lunch in Kyiv today.”
He adds: “We gave the Ukrainians so much kit and ammunition, we needed to replenish our own stocks, and that’s what that commitment in the general election manifesto to increase defence spending to two and a half per cent was all about.”
The debate over how to boost troop numbers is ongoing, with calls to train a ‘citizens’ army’ that could fight for the UK in the event of war. “I don’t want to pre-empt our review, but I’d be surprised if we recommended a system of mandatory conscription in peace time. But clearly, if you go to war, the situation changes dramatically,” says Francois.
Since Badenoch became leader of the Conservative Party just five months ago, there have been few policy announcements. The party is still in the early stages of creating policy through new commissions launched by the leader earlier this year.
James Cartlidge, the shadow defence secretary, and Francois are leading on the party’s defence policy, the first stage of which is to identify the challenges with a plan to have a final assessment by party conference in the autumn. “We’ve had a number of meetings with industry to get their input. We’ve had meetings with Conservative MPs, we’re also going to be talking to defence academics and experts,” says Francois.
He reveals the party is already drawing up plans for an Israeli-style ‘Iron Dome’ to protect the UK against cruise missile attacks ordered by hostile actors like Vladimir Putin. “One of the things that we’ll be looking at is, does the United Kingdom need something like that against a Russian threat? And if it does, how would you do that? And what does it cost?”
“There’s undoubtedly a missile threat in wartime to the United Kingdom, and at the moment, we haven’t got a system to defend against that.
“Russia has made massive use of cruise missile attacks against everything from Ukrainian military formations to power stations. They’ve even fired cruise missiles at children’s hospitals. In the United Kingdom we have very limited defences against that. We don’t have anything remotely like the Israeli layer defence system, sometimes called Iron Dome,” he adds.
Delays to Labour’s long-awaited Defence Review, led by former Nato general secretary Lord Robertson, have been “debilitating” for moving forward with defence policy decisions. “Everything grinds to a bit of a halt until the review is complete.”
“We want to do much of that [policy] work in opposition so that we hit the ground running when we come into government,” he explains.
If Ben Wallace hadn’t [acted] as Conservative defence secretary, the Russians would be having lunch in Kyiv today
Despite expectations that the review would be published this spring, there is still no date for publication, nor an idea of how detailed the document will be. “It is getting a bit like Waiting for Godot,” he says.
“After all this time, if they didn’t publish anything, the government would look pretty foolish. So they’re going to have to publish something.” He adds that the review will be “far less credible” if a scaled back version is published without detail on spending or resources.
All this comes against a backdrop of increased global insecurity, particularly Russia’s continued attack on Ukraine and instability in the Middle East.
Trump, who promised to end the Russia-Ukraine war “in 24 hours”, has been criticised for embracing Putin, who has shown no signs of accepting a peace deal.
Francois says Trump should get credit for “bringing Putin to the table”, but acknowledges a peace deal is a long way off. “Whilst Putin continues to pay lip service to a ceasefire he finds one excuse after another not actually to implement one.”
“I hope Trump will now see Putin for what he is, which is a murderous tyrant, and call his bluff,” he adds.
Batting off suggestions of a future Tory-Reform pact, the shadow defence minister instead criticises Reform – previously accused of fawning over Putin – for being missing in action when it comes to defence issues. “There have been a lot of defence debates and statements where no Reform person has ever turned up. We’ve catalogued it. And when someone does turn up to say something, it’s often not the same person as the one that turned up last time.
“We need to up the ante on Putin, including with further sanctions, in order to persuade him that he can’t win.”
Starmer has committed to putting “boots on the ground and planes in the sky” in Ukraine if needed to maintain a peace deal. “We’re very open minded about that, but we would need to know what the mission was,” says Francois. “If it’s a coalition of the willing, who’s in it, what are they willing to do?”
“Bluntly, no blank cheque,” he adds.
