Defence Secretary John Healey said Donald Trump’s US administration has ‘got a case’ after a leaked group chat showed revealed criticism of European nations on defence spending
A UK minister has failed to slap down a comment from Donald Trump’s sidekicks that Europe is a ‘pathetic freeloader’ – in fact appearing to agree with him.
Defence Secretary John Healey said Mr Trump’s US administration has “got a case” for saying European nations need to do more to fund and provide their own defence and security. It comes after a massive US Signal group chat blunder revealed vice president JD Vance hated “bailing Europe out” and Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said “European freeloading” was “pathetic”.
The comments in the chat, which inadvertently included a journalist from The Atlantic, were related to US strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen but come against a backdrop of Mr Trump’s drive to end the war in Ukraine and pull back from commitments in Europe. US lawmakers were yesterday scrambling to repair the damage which raised fears about the security of discussions between the US and its allies.
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Asked how he felt about being called a pathetic freeloader, Mr Healey said: “I regard it more as a challenge.” He added: “The Americans have absolutely got a case that on defence spending, on European security, on our support for Ukraine, European nations can and will do more, and the UK is leading the way. I’m proud of that on defence spending, on European security and on Ukraine. It’s why we’re pulling together the coalition.”
US special envoy Steve Witkoff has dismissed Keir Starmer’s plans for a “coalition of the willing” peacekeeping force in Ukraine as “a posture and a pose”. But Mr Healey said: “The UK is putting together the coalition of the willing in the circumstances, which I hope we can secure, of a negotiated peace settlement.
“We’re responding to that American challenge for European nations to do more to support Ukraine – and we are – and we’re responding to the requirements of the Ukrainians, who say ‘in the circumstances of a ceasefire, what security guarantees have we got that we won’t have Russia reinvading?”‘
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The row comes ahead of a major announcement on defence spending in the Spring Statement today. Rachel Reeves will unveil an extra £2.2billion for defence from next month to provide cutting-edge weapons for British armed forces and better homes for military families. The PM also announced the UK’s commitment to increasing spending on defence to 2.5% of GDP from April 2027.
Yesterday Downing Street said it was satisfied any intelligence it shared with the Trump administration would be properly handled. The PM’s official spokesman said: “The US is our closest ally when it comes to intelligence and defence. We have a longstanding relationship on intelligence and defence cooperation … We will continue and continue to build on the very strong relationship we already have with the US.”
The spokesman would not discuss the leak in detail. But asked if the government was “100% confident” about sharing secret information with the US, he replied: “Yes.”
Mr Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Waltz, said on Tuesday he takes “full responsibility” for the Signal group chat including journalist Jeffrey Goldberg as he “built the group”. He admitted the leak was “embarrassing” but still tried to pass on blame, saying he needed to look into how it happened.
The US President yesterday dismissed the highly sensitive security leak as “the only glitch in two months”, since he returned to the White House in January.
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