The UK’s security is “in peril” and Sir Keir Starmer’s government has shown “corrosive complacency” towards defence, a former Nato secretary general has said.
Lord George Robertson, the former Labour defence secretary who wrote the government’s Strategic Defence Review (SDR), will accuse “non-military experts in the Treasury” of “vandalism”, in a speech to be delivered later on Tuesday.
While the SDR was delivered in June last year, the 10-year defence investment plan to fund it has been repeatedly delayed and Lord Robertson told the Financial Times Sir Keir was “not willing to make the necessary investment”.
A government spokesperson said the SDR was “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”.
In a directly political intervention, Lord Robertson – who is now a key government adviser – will warn in his speech: “We cannot defend Britain with an ever-expanding welfare budget.”
Speaking in Salisbury, he 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.”
He will add: “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.”
Defence spending last year was 2.3% of GDP (around £66bn). A defence official highlighted the government’s target to spend 3% of GDP on defence by the end of the next Parliament and 3.5% of GDP on core defence by 2035.
