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Britain’s leaders have shown a “corrosive complacency” towards defence, putting the country “in peril” while it is “under attack”, a key government adviser has warned, in a stinging rebuke of Sir Keir Starmer’s military policy.
Lord George Robertson, former Nato secretary-general and author of the government’s strategic defence review (SDR), told the FT that there was a gap between the prime minister’s rhetoric and action on defence — saying Starmer was “not willing to make the necessary investment”.
The former Labour defence secretary will use a lecture in Salisbury on Tuesday to warn that the Iran war “has to be a rude wake-up call”.
He will accuse “non-military experts in the Treasury” of “vandalism”, adding: “We cannot defend Britain with an ever-expanding welfare budget.”
It is a significant intervention by Robertson, who had kept his counsel and tried to work constructively behind the scenes until now, but has run out of patience with the government’s failure to grip the problem.
In the speech, 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.”
The government promised to spell out its proposals to fund the ambitions set out in the SDR, which reported last June, with a 10-year defence investment plan (DIP). However, this funding blueprint, initially due last autumn, has been repeatedly postponed. Industry and allies have sounded the alarm over the delay.
The Ministry of Defence, Treasury and Downing Street have been in deadlock about how to proceed, according to people familiar with the matter.
There is a funding gap of around £28bn over the next four years in the UK military’s existing plans, according to officials, even before the ambitions of the SDR are taken into account.
The Treasury has been adamant that it will not ease its fiscal rules, which renders any further borrowing for defence difficult. There is also widespread reluctance across government for further tax rises.
By highlighting the swelling welfare budget, Robertson signalled that spending cuts in other departments may be required to boost defence funding.
He will highlight that chancellor Rachel Reeves “used a mere 40 words on defence in over an hour” in her Budget speech last year, while last month “in the Spring Statement she used none”.
In his speech, he will say: “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.”
Robertson will cite the UK’s inability to deploy more than one Royal Navy warship to the Mediterranean within the first fortnight of the Iran war this spring as an example of the “parlous state” of its current defences.
He will warn that the country faces not just shortages of military kit, but “crises in logistics, engineering, cyber, ammunition, training and medical resources”.
His intervention comes after UK Defence Secretary John Healey last week exposed a covert Russian submarine operation loitering near undersea cables in around UK waters, framing it as only the latest “hybrid warfare activities” that Moscow is conducting against Britain and its allies.
On Monday the Kremlin confirmed that a Russian warship escorted oil tankers through the English Channel last week. Robertson told the FT that “there’s a hybrid war being declared on us already, and it could change at any moment” to direct military confrontation.
Referring to Donald Trump’s criticism of Nato, the former alliance chief will say: “Recent days have shown that the role and priorities of the United States have shifted, and will never be the same again.”
He will warn against gloating from opposition parties, describing political point-scoring as “a dangerous luxury”. He will also reveal that “depressingly” the leaders of the Liberal Democrats and Reform UK have not taken him up on his offer of a briefing about what the SDR says and means.
A spokesperson for Nigel Farage said his team was unaware of any offer of a briefing. Sir Ed Davey’s spokesperson was approached for comment.
A defence official pointed out that the government has set a target to spend 3 per cent of GDP on defence by the end of the next parliament, rising to the Nato-wide goal of spending 5 per cent of GDP on national security by 2035.
A government spokesperson 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 £270bn being invested across this parliament.”
The government is finalising the DIP and will publish it as soon as possible, the spokesperson added.