'We need more friggin' frigates': Emily Thornberry says UK 'cannot defend itself without them' after Russian spy submarine incursion
The UK “needs more friggin frigates”, Dame Emily Thornberry has told LBC as she called on the UK to be more “assertive” when confronting Russian spy submarines.
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The Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury spoke to LBC’s Nick Ferrari hours after it emerged Russian spy submarines had been operating near the UK.
Simultaneously, a Russian shadow fleet vessel was also travelling through British waters.
But shortly after the Defence Secretary made the announcement, it was reported that the Royal Navy had been blocked from boarding the Russian vessels after an intervention from the Attorney General, Lord Hermer.
When pressed on why this happened, Dame Emily told Nick: “We have the powers to go after the Shadow Fleet.
“I think we should be much more assertive when it comes to Shadow Fleet.
“I have made my views clear. I've not spoken directly to the Prime Minister about it, but I have made my views clear.”
Calling on Sir Keir Starmer’s government to invest more in the Royal Navy, she added: “I've always said we need more frigates.
“I think we've got about seven. We just don't have the same dock.
“We have chronic underfunding of our navy. I have said for more than a decade we need more friggin' frigates and we need more ships and we are an island nation and we cannot defend ourselves without them.
“For me, it is a priority. Obviously, the problem with building ships is that it takes a while and it is shocking that under 14 years of Conservative government, they simply weren't investing in the navy, and now this is the fruit of that.”
Moscow's shadow fleet is reported to be made up of more than a thousand ageing tankers - with revenues directly fuelling Putin's war in Ukraine.
The fleet illicitly ships oil and other goods out of Russia by flying the flags of other countries, with the aim of evading sanctions imposed by the West since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Starmer announced the authorisation for seizure last month at a meeting of the Joint Expeditionary Force, a military coalition of 10 northern European countries led by the UK, which aims to defend against Russian incursions.
It also includes Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.
JEF countries Finland, Sweden and Estonia have recently intercepted suspected shadow tankers travelling through the Baltic.
Closing off British waters to the shadow fleet was aimed at forcing the Russian vessels into taking longer, more costly sea routes, or risk being intercepted by the UK.
But the fiasco regarding Britain's HMS Dragon warship heading to Cyprus appears to have emboldened Russia to test Starmer's resolve.
Donald Trump has called Britain's naval fleet "toys", while the American defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, has openly mocked the "big, bad Royal Navy" in recent weeks.
When pressed on what Sir Keir Starmer’s government is doing to combat fuel prices caused by Trump’s war on Iran, Dame Emily added: “We've got so much to do and it's, and it is difficult to know quite where to start.
“That list not just changing planning, but also I think when we're talking about the economy, we also ought to be getting closer to Europe.
“We started that work, but much more work needs to be done in relation to that. We're about to celebrate in quotation marks, ‘10 years since the Brexit vote’.
“And I think that everybody knows that we ought to be closer in economic terms to the European Union.”