About Labour Friends of NATO
Who we are
Labour Friends of NATO is a
UK-wide network of Labour Party supporters, activists, academics, and elected representatives including MPs and Peers. We are an informal network, with Co-directors Gary Kent and Paul Richards, and our Chair Alex Baker, Labour MP for Aldershot.
Our advisory board includes Lord George Robertson, former Secretary General of NATO, and Derek Twigg MP, leader of the UK delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Our patrons include a wide range of MPs, academics, trade unionists, and Peers.
Our goals
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Make the overtly Labour case for Britain’s active membership of NATO. We are proud of Labour’s leading role in founding NATO in 1949. We view NATO as one of the most important instruments of world peace ever created. It is the ultimate ‘stop the war’ coalition.
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Inform and educate Labour supporters about the need for NATO and developments within the alliance, through roundtables, events, delegations, and briefings.
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Work closely with Labour ministers and MPs to make the case for NATO with the British public.
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Argue robustly against those in Britain who seek to undermine the UK’s role in NATO, who reject Britain’s membership of NATO, or who offer support and succour to Britain’s enemies.
Labour Friends of NATO is not a formal affiliate of the Labour Party, but like other ‘Friends of…’ groups, it is a voluntary group reliant on sponsorship, goodwill and voluntary activity.
Labour's policy on NATO and Security
Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee stated in a speech in Glasgow in April 1949:
“The Atlantic Treaty is not aggressive. It is purely defensive. Those who attack it as offensive do so from a bad conscience…We seek by the pact to gain for the nations a sense of security which they so ardently desire. We seek by the organisation of security to make the world safe against aggression and by pooling of strength to reduce the burden of armaments”.
Since the 1940s, from the period of post-war reconstruction, through the Cold War, and into the age of cyberwarfare, drones, and AI, successive Labour Prime Ministers have maintained the UK’s leadership role in NATO.
In February 2026, a Survation opinion poll of Labour Party members, published in LabourList showed that an overwhelming majority (88%) of Labour members support Britain’s continued membership of NATO. Only 7% of Labour members said they would like to see Britain withdraw from the organisation, with 5% unsure.
Today, the Labour Party’s policy is:
“Labour is stepping up to protect Britain in the face of evolving global security threats. We have set out plans to boost national security spending to 5% of GDP by 2035, including the biggest sustained increase in core defence funding since the Cold War. This investment will also back UK defence industries, support hundreds of businesses, and create tens of thousands of jobs across the country”.
“Labour is increasing our focus on defence to meet today’s global threats. We’re putting the UK at the forefront of efforts to make NATO stronger, fairer and more effective. At the heart of this is a new defence investment pledge, with NATO allies agreeing to raise defence and security spending to 5% of GDP by 2035”.
Labour Friends of NATO has no collective policy, beyond our unshakable support for Britain’s role in NATO. We exist as a platform for discussion and debate, from a Labour perspective, about the multiple issues facing NATO, and the wider debate about defence and security.