Osborne and Cameron cut UK defence spending - and now Starmer is making it worse
Planet Normal
Louisa Wells
4.7 • 2.9K Ratings
🗓️ 15 April 2026
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
You can watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/-e1x0gsvjfY
This week on the rocket, co-pilots Halligan and Pearson eye a horizon of storm clouds gathering over Britain’s economy and national security.
Liam breaks down the "serious downgrade" from the IMF, which predicts the UK will suffer more economic fallout from the war in Iran than any other major economy. He asks if the government is blaming external conflicts for vulnerabilities that were already "starkly exposed" months ago?.
Meanwhile, Allison reels from Liam’s sudden appearance on the front pages of the tabloids before diving into her powerful column on the Southport inquiry. They discuss the catastrophic failures of agencies that ignored unambiguously signposted warnings, and the ‘woke priorities’ that may have silenced those trying to protect the public.
Strapping in this week is former Royal Marine commando James Glancy who tells your co-pilots why the UK military can no longer meet its responsibilities around the world.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Telegraph. |
| 0:09.0 | So here we are on Planet Normal trying to establish a credible economics platform. |
| 0:15.2 | And there are you, tarting about in the tabloids, with the new squeeze. |
| 0:21.1 | And it will be, you know, a much more popular podcast with Alison. starting about in the tabloids with the new squeeze. Four. |
| 0:26.0 | And it will be, you know, a much more popular podcast with Alison Pearson and Kate Garrow. |
| 0:26.9 | What a combination. |
| 0:28.3 | Three. |
| 0:34.9 | All Labour wants to do is borrow and spend and borrow and spend and tax and borrow and spend. |
| 0:35.8 | Two. |
| 0:43.4 | I have long thought that the so-called international rules-based order was a bit of a facade, but it has been really found wanting. |
| 0:45.7 | One. |
| 0:49.2 | We have left off. |
| 0:51.8 | Welcome once again to Planet Normal, the Telegraph podcast with Alison Pearson. |
| 0:56.0 | Hello. And me, Liam Halligan. The UK will suffer more economic fallout from the war in Iran |
| 1:02.8 | than any other major economy. That's the verdict of the International Monetary Fund, |
| 1:07.4 | the world's most important financial watchdog. During 2025, the UK grew by |
| 1:13.5 | 1.4%, but that still felt pretty sluggish. But this year, according to the Washington-based |
| 1:19.7 | IMF, the British economy will expand by just 0.8%. That's a serious downgrade from the 1.3% growth the fund was predicting for this year |
| 1:30.3 | as recently as January. And on a per capita basis, the UK's rising population means that GDP |
| 1:37.2 | growth per head will be just 0.2%, says the IMF. That by a way, is the lowest per capita growth rate in the G7. |
| 1:48.8 | Rachel Reeves is trying to blame the UK's economic woes entirely on Donald Trump and Israel's |
| 1:54.3 | conflict with the Mullers. The UK certainly exposed as a net importer of both energy and food. |
... |
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