Kemi Badenoch has denied she compared a new air defence system proposed by the party to Israel’s Iron Dome, despite using the term in her press release and a newspaper article. The Conservative leader said the party’s proposed “Britannia Shield” would not be comparable to the missile defence system in Israel, which is primarily designed to counter short-range attacks. The party has proposed allotting £1bn a year towards building the system, though the former army general Richard Barrons told Times Radio the cost of a system similar to Israel’s would be upwards of £100bn.
Badenoch said on Times Radio it was a “semantic argument” and that the new system would protect Britain from increasing threats. She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the description had come from newspapers – though the Conservative party press release described the system as “in essence a British Iron Dome”. In a piece authored by Badenoch in the Sun, which illustrated its front page with an image of Israel’s Iron Dome, she wrote: “Modelled on Israel’s ‘Iron Dome’, Britannia Shield will invest £10bn over 10 years in the radar, missiles and technology needed to detect these threats and stop them before they reach British soil.” But Badenoch told Today that was not the aim.
We are doing what other European countries are doing: Greece, Benelux countries – Belgium and the Netherlands – and Germany. We are designing something specific for the kind of threat that we face here.” Asked why newspapers had chosen to describe it as an Iron Dome, Badenoch said: “You’ll have to speak to the newspapers about that. I called it the Britannia Shield.
The Iron Dome is one type, and we want people to understand what we’re talking about, we haven’t said that we are replicating that. And the money that we are spending, £1bn a year over 10 years, should be able to deliver this.” The shadow defence secretary, James Cartlidge, likened the phrase “iron dome” to the vacuum cleaner brand name Hoover when he was asked why Badenoch had denied the Conservatives were proposing an Iron Dome-style system. He told journalists: “So, the phrase ‘iron dome’ has come to be used a bit like the word ‘hoover’ to generically refer to missile defence systems – and this is clearly a missile defence system.
Is it the exact same iron dome as Israel? It’s to do with very near threats from the likes of Hezbollah. It was actually originally designed for artillery and very unsophisticated weaponry, whereas what we’re talking about, Britannia Shield, is a bespoke UK system.
It’s just, if you speak to the media and the public, if you say ‘iron dome’ they at least know roughly what you’re talking about.” Cartlidge will say later at the Tory party conference that the UK needs to be ready to defend itself from potential aerial attacks and that new investment is needed in advanced radar and interceptor missiles. Asked on Times Radio if the aim was to be able to intercept any attack over the entire country, Badenoch said: “It should, but it needs to protect critical national infrastructure … Critical national infrastructure protects the entire country. If we lose even one thing, the entire country is in a real problem, and that’s what we mean.” Badenoch will give her own speech to close the conference on Wednesday.
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