u/AndyBurnham

Football has been part of my life for as long as I can remember.

Some of my best memories are standing on the terraces at Goodison Park with my brother. The journey there, the anticipation as you got close to the ground, the noise as you walked up the steps and saw the pitch, then talking about absolutely nothing else for the whole way home.

In April 1984, I got on a coach from Ashton town centre to watch Everton in the FA Cup semi final at Highbury. In the early hours of the following morning, we pulled back onto the high street where my dad was waiting to collect me.

“Did you have a good day?”

“Brilliant.”

“Did you behave yourself?”

“Of course.”

“So that wasn’t you I saw running across the pitch on Match of the Day then?”

Well, at least it wasn’t a field of wheat…

Growing up in Culcheth, roughly halfway between Manchester and Liverpool, the Burnhams were the only match going Everton family in an otherwise Liverpool supporting village. Believe me when I tell you that the school playground was a tough place to be a Toffee in the 1970s and 80s, the most successful period in our great rival’s history.

And every four years, when the World Cup comes around, it feels like the entire country is on that rollercoaster together. Fierce club rivalries that normally divide our towns and cities down the middle are put aside. In the pubs, sports clubs and living rooms across the country, we share every minute of the highs and lows.

For those few special weeks, we’re brought together by the faintest of hopes that this could, just could, be our year.

That’s why football matters to me. Not because of the results, I’d have definitely chosen a more successful team to support if that was the case! But because it has the ability to bring people together with a shared sense of community and place. Whether it’s a local pub team playing on a muddy Sunday morning, or England holding its breath as Harry Kane steps up to take a penalty. These are our teams, forged in our communities, representing our places.

That’s also why I’ve always cared about making sure more people get the chance to be part of the game. As Mayor, we set up Greater Manchester’s Women’s Football Board, pushed for girls to have equal access to football in schools and backed better grassroots facilities. Because football is at its best when everyone has the chance to play, belong and be part of something bigger than themselves.

The World Cup takes that feeling and puts it on the biggest stage of all. It brings together players and teams from every corner of the globe, different languages and cultures, but every player pulling on the shirt for their national team. Representing their country on the world stage.

As fans, it’s the reason we feel so moved when our teams step onto the pitch. Eleven players representing millions of people back home, cheering them on from our sofas, or occasionally behind them. Players from every corner of the country, carrying the hopes of an entire nation on their shoulders.

Sometimes it can feel like these moments, when the entire country comes together, are few and far between nowadays. I’m old enough to remember when the nation held its breath as Dirty Den served Angie with divorce papers on EastEnders, or the collective gasps as they revealed who shot J.R. in Dallas. But in a world where we have unlimited possibilities at our fingertips, those shared experiences have become rarer.

That’s why this World Cup has made me feel hopeful. Not just because Harry Kane has brought his shooting boots and Jordan Pickford is having the tournament of his life. But because the whole country feels like it’s going on the same journey together. Parents letting kids stay up until the early hours to watch the games live; pub goers cheering a re run of Pointless on the big screen because they don’t want the party to end.

Sometimes it can feel like we’re living in an increasingly divided country and the political turbulence of the last decade certainly hasn’t helped. But in moments like this, it reminds us of how much we have in common.

Keeping people safe is the first responsibility of any government and increasing our national security, in every sense, will be my first priority if I become prime minister.

We face an increasingly dangerous world, with growing Russian aggression, conflict in the Middle East, climate and energy insecurity, and technology rapidly changing the nature of war abroad and our security at home.

The global picture is darkening and we must take concerted action to enhance our resilience, starting at the local level. We have seen with increasing frequency how ordinary lives and local prosperity are impacted by global events, each time exposing fundamental vulnerabilities in our society and economy.

The closing of the Strait of Hormuz raised the cost of filling up the family car. The war in Ukraine pushed up food bills and energy prices. State-backed cyberattacks on our hospitals have disrupted critical care and patient safety.

And when hackers brought Jaguar Land Rover to a standstill, it was workers in the Midlands who paid the price, with thousands of jobs at risk and nearly £2 billion wiped from our economy. But Britain is not powerless in the face of these threats.

We can respond by building a Britain that is more resilient, confident and principled; resilient to the shocks that will come our way; confident in the international leadership we can provide; and principled in the abiding values that define who we are as a nation.

We can simultaneously defend our national security, protect and grow our economy and make our nation stronger. In doing so, we will build on the good work of this government and follow some key guiding principles.

First, stability where it matters most. Our commitment to Nato and the UK’s nuclear deterrent will remain absolute. Our relationship with the US will remain critical as our most important defence and security ally. And Britain’s support for Ukraine will not waver. We know that British security and wider Euro-Atlantic security are inseparable from what happens in Ukraine.

This Labour government has proved once again that UK leadership can be a force for good in the world, creating and co-chairing the coalition of the willing to support the brave Ukrainian people and push back against President Putin.

I have stood resolutely with the Ukrainian mayors Andriy Sadovyi and Vitali Klitschko in recent years and will carry that approach forward by continuing to stand with the Ukrainian people against Russian aggression.

Second, in response to the evolving threats we face, and as we meet our Nato commitments, it is right that we rebuild our hard power for a new era that is very different to the one in which much of our current military equipment was first designed.

Crucially, as we do so, I want to ensure we back British workers and businesses. This means we must go much further than ever before through the defence investment plan in backing British resilience, using a sustained increase in defence investment not only to provide the kit our armed forces need, but also to generate economic growth and create apprenticeships and jobs in communities that have seen opportunities drain away.

We will do this by boosting our sovereign capabilities in areas where we already have incredible strengths and in the tech of the future — from shipbuilding and energetics to AI and quantum.

We will also focus on reducing foreign dependency, securing inward investment and building new industrial partnerships with allies. Reindustrialisation through defence — and other sectors — is critical for both our economic and national security, building resilience in all our places. It will be a core priority for me.

Third, I want an even closer relationship with countries across Europe, working more through European-led groupings, such as the E3 (the UK, France and Germany), strengthening the European pillar in Nato and breaking down any barriers to defence industrial co-operation.

I want to consolidate the progress made on the existing UK-EU negotiations and make further progress quickly, including by strengthening our co-operation on illegal migration, economic security and the broader resilience of our societies to external threats — from terrorism to AI-driven disinformation.

Fourth, we must be guided by our values. Effective alliances are built on values as well as interests. Countries work with us not only because of what we bring to the table, but because they know what we stand for and what we stand against.

Our backing for international law and international institutions, such as the UN, extends UK influence.

Finally, we must change how we involve the British public in this debate because decisions about defence and security have rarely mattered more for families across Britain.

Doing politics differently means levelling with the public, engaging them in decisions and ensuring more social value in return for increased government spending.

I want to be more open with the public about how and where defence funding is spent. For our biggest defence and infrastructure projects, I want to see more detailed, public progress updates, with more transparency and accountability to tackle cost overruns or delays before they spiral out of control. Our increased investment must be combined with an increase in scrutiny.

There’s no doubt that we face a growing and evolving threat, which we must prepare for using the ingenuity and talents of the British people. As prime minister, I will surround myself with the best and most experienced advisers when it comes to national security, and this includes keeping Jonathan Powell as national security adviser.

I see our strength at home and our strength in the world as indivisible. Through No 10 North, and the devolution of power to all parts of the UK, we will take a new approach to regenerating and reindustrialising the country, and thereby strengthening its resilience. That same approach will consider foreign policy, economic policy, security, social cohesion and British values as inextricably linked elements of the same strategic question.

This is how we can ensure a resurgent Britain in a more dangerous world, drawing strength both from our allies abroad and from our communities at home.

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/andy-burnham-defence-nato-investment-rebuild-bc7rnr5l5