Starmer has his hand on the red button now and he must show his resolve

Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, former Commanding Officer 1st Royal Tank Regiment, says Sir Keir Starmer must treat defence as a priority that he cannot afford to get wrong.

As the UK has now swung to the left, the European Union is not just going right, but hard right.

This surge to the right is led by Hungary's prime minister Victor Orban, the closest ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin among EU leaders, who has frequently opposed EU initiatives to support Ukraine in its defence against the illegal Russian invasion, but also by the French, the Poles and the Italians.

Sir Keir Starmer's foreign and military team must hit the ground sprinting today; if they are merely jogging, they could be caught out.

Labour cannot ignore the defence of the UK and the war in Europe, as all parties have done in this election; they may have to demonstrate their resolve as early as this weekend, along with the celebrations and the hangovers; they can't knock off at 6pm this Friday!

Be in no doubt, the Kremlin will fully test them over the next few weeks and are watching them closely.

An ex-MOD official in the FT this week believes the MOD is unprepared for conflict of "any" scale – and he should know as he was responsible for it.

However, it is evident that too much money has been taken out of defence by the so called peace-dividend which the Ukraine war so clearly is illustrating no longer exists.

Quite the converse, with war possible in Europe, and constant threat of nuclear attack from Russia and Belarus now as well, this could draw Britain directly into a conflict in Europe yet again, and sooner than most voters are aware of, I expect.

Sir Keir Starmer, now the de facto Commander-in-Chief, must first focus on and get aboard his defence brief before anything else.

The Russians will exploit any weakness, and with a good many of his front bench having been in the past anti-nuclear, Putin will be rubbing his hands with glee that his nuclear threats may not be parried so easily in future.

Defence usually prospers under the Labour Party, so there is hope that this will continue with Sir Keir Starmer and John Healey, who is set to be new defence secretary, and they will start rebuilding our conventional deterrent.

Though Labour have been out of power for 14 years and seem to lack military experience within their ranks, I note many of my fellow military commentators are giving them lots of 'useful' advice!

Labour's manifesto commitment for a Defence Review is welcome, as our current defence capability is woefully small, and designed for a war that no longer exists.

The future is going to be more like Ukraine, drones, AI et al, and less like Iraq and Afghanistan, where most of our corporate experience and capabilities are from.

I'm not sure we have the luxury of time for this at the moment, and we must show an immediate commitment to stiffen our defence which will involve increasing spending, substantially, today.

This is probably not the natural hunting ground for Labour, who rightly want to improve the NHS and redistribute wealth more evenly, but that will be meaningless if the 'Reds' are knocking at the door next week!

Starmer now has his hand on our 'red button' and must demonstrate his understanding and resolve here, and dispel any fears that Labour is still the party of Corbyn and anti-anything to do with the defence of these Islands.

Ideologically, whatever the Labour manifesto says, this is going to be a challenge and the Kremlin is watching and ready to pounce.

Many of the likely Labour cabinet voted in recent times to scrap Trident, and of course the previous Labour leader would have us out of Nato as well.

The reason we are currently not at war with Russia is our own nuclear deterrence and our membership of Nato.

If the new PM trips up on defence in the first few weeks he could challenge Liz Truss in the premiership longevity stakes.

Get this wrong and all the 'great things' Labour is planning could become horrifically irrelevant, very quickly.

Starmer and his team, who have been holding the coats for over a decade, will be in the fight this week and as some in Europe lean to the far right and look to Moscow, the new Labour government could be the only ones between war in Europe or ensuring Ukraine prevails as US and EU ammo dries up.

Let’s pray they are up to the task – good luck!