Former defence secretaries and Labour grandees have rowed in behind a former Nato secretary general, who has warned that the UK’s security is “in peril” as a result of the “corrosive complacency” of Sir Keir Starmer.
George Robertson, a former Labour defence secretary who was appointed by the prime minister to write the government’s Strategic Defence Review (SDR), will use a speech on Tuesday to accuse “non-military experts” in the Treasury of “vandalism” and claim Sir Keir is unwilling “to make the necessary investment” in Britain’s defence.
Piling in on Lord Robertson’s criticisms, Malcolm Rifkind, a former defence secretary, argued that the government’s “prime responsibility” is defence, and called for ministers to fund this through a cut to welfare or an increase in income tax.
Jack Straw, who was foreign secretary under Tony Blair, praised Lord Robertson’s intervention, telling The Independent: “As George points out, there is a great urgency to settle the defence spending programme at a level which meets our needs, now and in the future, and with that make necessary decisions to cut non-essential welfare spending.”
And former Tory defence secretary Ben Wallace said: “Lord Robertson, like the rest of us, has become increasingly frustrated with a prime minister who talks the talk but doesn’t follow it up with funding and action. The PM needs to show leadership, not spin, on our defence.”
Downing Street hit back at Lord Robertson’s assertion that Britain was “underprepared” and “underinsured”, with the prime minister’s official spokesperson saying: “I completely reject that. Our armed forces, as I say, are working around the world every minute of the day to keep us safe at home.”
The development comes just days after Lord Robertson told The Independent that the government was “taking the public for fools” after the defence secretary, John Healey, insisted that the UK was ready to defend itself.
Mr Wallace’s predecessor, Penny Mordaunt, told The Independent that the former Nato secretary general was “absolutely right. The Treasury must realise that it can’t have growth if our data, energy, trade and interests aren’t protected.”
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, another of the SDR’s authors, General Sir Richard Barrons, agreed with Lord Robertson that “there’s an enormous gap between where we have to be to keep the country safe in the world we now live in and where we actually are”. He had earlier warned that the military is so depleted it could only “seize a small market town on a good day”.
The government has promised to publish a 10-year defence investment plan to fund the SDR, but it has been beset by repeated delays and warnings that the military is facing a £28bn black hole in its funding over the next four years. In a damning intervention on Tuesday, Lord Robertson will take aim at Sir Keir Starmer’s failure to tackle the growing benefits bill, warning: “We cannot defend Britain with an ever-expanding welfare budget.”
The speech has come as a major shock, in part because Lord Robertson has until now kept his advice and any criticisms strictly private and rarely speaks out.
With turbulence in the Middle East and Ukraine, Lord Robertson will say: “We are underprepared. We are underinsured. We are under attack. We are not safe . . . Britain’s national security and safety is in peril.
“There is a corrosive complacency today in Britain's political leadership. Lip service is paid to the risks, the threats, the bright red signals of danger, but even a promised national conversation about defence can't be started."
Sir Malcolm told The Independent he “fully agrees” with Lord Robertson. “The government must decide what is its prime responsibility,” he said. “It is the defence of the realm. That means they must increase the resources available to the armed forces paid for either by a reduction in the welfare services or an increase in income tax or VAT; or a combination of these sources. They must have the courage to explain this to the public. They will have to make this judgement at some time, the sooner the better.”
The government has committed to spending 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product on defence by 2027, increasing to 3 per cent in the next parliament and a Nato-agreed target of 3.5 per cent by 2035.
Sir Keir told MPs on Monday that the government was working to finalise the defence investment plan, but he did not want to repeat the mistakes of previous administrations because “we inherited plans that were unfunded and not deliverable”.
MPs on both sides of the Commons have already expressed concerns over the failure of the government to publish its defence investment plan.
Meanwhile, in-year savings were blamed for a delay in sending HMS Dragon to Cyprus weeks after the Iran crisis began and the UK’s base on the island came under attack from Tehran.
There are also ongoing questions about the reduction of the size of the army, which is down to around 70,000 personnel and using poor and outdated heavy vehicles and tanks.
Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, said she agreed “100 per cent” with Lord Robertson’s damning criticism. She said: “We used to spend one in every seven pounds on welfare. Now it's one in every three pounds, and a lot of that money has basically been swapped for defence. The world is not as peaceful as it used to be. The peace dividend that existed after the fall of the Berlin Wall is gone. We need to spend more money on defence. This is a former Labour defence secretary, former Nato secretary general, saying what I’ve been saying for the past few weeks.”
A government spokesman said: “We are delivering on the strategic defence review to meet the threats we face. It is backed by the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War, with a total of over £270 billion being invested across this Parliament.
“We are finalising our defence investment plan that we will publish as soon as possible, putting the best kit and technology into the hands of our forces, rebuilding British industry to make defence an engine for growth and doubling down on our own commitment to Nato.”
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