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After kicking off his campaign trail in Manchester, BasedChurchill travelled to Liverpool high street with a group of supporting veterans to talk defence. With spirits high and after what was a successful launch, BC was surprised to see a lively audience of locals that had turned up to support his candidacy.

Hello, Liverpool! It’s lovely to be here in this historic city, moments after a successful launch down the road in Manchester, and I thank you all for attending and showing your support. Throughout history, this city has been key to our national defence - especially as a marine city - which prompted me to give a few words on the defence platform in which I’m standing on, and subsequently why you should elect me as your MP.

Here there are only two choices - Conservative or Labour - and only making the former would immediately seek to protect and strengthen our armed forces. We saw this in the Labour manifesto which contained zero new spending commitments with regards to our military. In such polarised global times such as these, the Conservative Party believes in restoring our place in the world as a global leader in security - which certainly means taking the decisions to meet our international obligations on spending. We will therefore follow our counterparts in increasing defence spending to 2.5% by 2030, while ensuring that all NATO allies can and will meet the 2% standard. It’s worrying that Labour would be unable to do this, and therefore evident that our defence forces would be the underbelly of Europe under their administration.

Alongside increasing the defence budget, we believe in pro-active measures to tackle the axis of authoritarian states in Europe and beyond that threaten international security. After all, defending global order will always be top priority as a leader of the Western world, and the Conservatives will always enable us to be in a position to do this. Multilaterally, we will strengthen existing organisations with like-minded partners through increased investment into our collective security, whilst using our post-Brexit powers and relationships to create new defensive treaties in Europe - including through the Joint Expeditionary Force. Brexit has been a force for good, and it allows us to now bolster defensive ties with our partners in Europe and beyond. 

Outside of Europe, we will seek to build on our special relationship with the US through closer trading and security ties, whilst working with them to defend international trade - combatting the Houthi terrorists that threaten the lives of British sailors - something that was unmentioned and clearly too unimportant to Labour. In Asia, we will pursue a new Indo-Pacific strategy to expand ties with various allies across the continent and bolster the Hiroshima Accord - building upon ties especially with Japan as a force of good in the region. Across the wider world, the Conservatives seek to enhance the Commonwealth as a formal treaty organisation, deepening upon our already significant cooperation, trade, and investment - allowing us to build collective resilience with those that share our values and goals across the globe. 

Only the Conservative Party will create a global Britain, and one which seeks to consistently challenge the authoritarian forces that threaten our security and livelihoods - this could not be more evident. If you elect me as your MP, I will work with the national party to ensure that this is the case, and work with my colleagues to swiftly deliver on our manifesto commitments - especially during such pressing times.

In addition to increasing defence spending as a share of GDP, the Conservatives are also willing to take the tough decisions that ensure we have a contemporary and able defence force that can adapt to modern challenges. With the war in Ukraine, it’s evident that we and most of the Western world need rejuvenated industrial bases, for our own good and for those fighting wars against authoritarian states in Europe. That’s why only we are committed to spending an extra £10 billion over the next decade to boost our defence industry and ramp up munitions production. We mustn’t be caught out when tyranny comes to our doorstep, and we will ensure this isn’t the case. In the long term, we will form strategic partnerships with such industrial partners to create thousands of opportunities here in the North West and across the United Kingdom - investing in the wealth of skills and knowledge developed here.

Of course, all of these are paramount to the goals of an effective military, but we must also seek to constantly modernise the status quo across the board whilst fundamentally investing in new technologies. That’s why we will seek to establish a new Defence Innovation Agency to scale up funding with regards to research and development, and accelerate funding into weapons systems. A new, streamlined procurement model, similar to our NHS reforms, is necessary to boost private investment and make the procurement of new technologies increasingly cohesive - maximising productivity and meeting our target of being the largest defence-related exporter in Europe by 2030. This is a necessity for our global projection and self-defence goals, and only we deliver a comprehensive plan to do exactly this.

With a sense of confidence in the air, BC finished his speech to unanimous applause and cheers from the crowd, before shaking the hands of and taking photos with veterans present in support. Afterwards, he took questions from the public and presented his plans for a global Britain many times more while putting up posters (attached) in the high street.