Conscience joins call for a different approach to UK security

Conscience: Taxes for Peace not War is proud to have joined more than 50 organisations in signing a public letter to the outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer ahead of the recent NATO Summit in Ankara.

The letter warns against the UK Government’s increasing focus on military spending at the expense of other essential ways of building security, including diplomacy, development, peacebuilding, climate action, conflict prevention and international cooperation. For Conscience, this is a question at the heart of our work: what should our taxes be used for?

At a time when billions more are being committed to military spending, the public deserves

a much broader conversation about what truly keeps people safe. Security is too often

reduced to weapons, rearmament and preparation for war. But real security is also about

whether people can live free from poverty, displacement, environmental breakdown,

violence and fear.

The letter argues that development, diplomacy, peacebuilding, conflict and atrocity

prevention are not optional extras. They are essential tools for building a safer world. Yet

these areas remain underfunded while military budgets continue to rise.

This imbalance matters.

When public money is overwhelmingly directed towards the military, it limits what can be

invested in the work of preventing violence before it begins. It narrows our understanding

of security. It also sends a dangerous message: that preparing for war is the natural route to

peace.

At Conscience, we believe there is another way.

We campaign for the legal right of conscientious objection to military taxation: the right for

people who object to war to have the military portion of their taxes redirected towards

peaceful purposes. That principle is rooted in the simple conviction that people should not

be forced to fund war against their conscience.

But this issue is not only about individual conscience. It is also about public priorities.

Every budget is a moral document. Every spending decision reflects a choice about the kind

of society we want to build. When billions are found for military expansion while peacebuilding, climate action, development and public services are squeezed, we must ask:

whose security is being prioritised?

The public letter calls for a more cooperative, internationalist approach: one that invests in

the skills, institutions and policies needed to build lasting peace. That means taking seriously

the threats posed by climate breakdown, inequality, forced displacement, nuclear weapons

and the erosion of international cooperation.

It also means recognising that peace does not happen by accident. It must be resourced.

The UK has previously played an important role in areas such as peacebuilding, global

climate cooperation, international justice and preventing sexual violence in conflict. These

commitments should not be sidelined in the rush towards higher military spending. They

should be renewed, expanded and properly funded.

As the Government faces pressure to further entrench the UK in a war-oriented economy,

we believe it should choose a different path.

Security should not mean preparing endlessly for war. It should mean investing in the conditions that make war less likely.

That is why Conscience signed this letter (click here to read the letter).

Our taxes should nurture peace, not war. It is time to give peace a budget.