Britain’s military spending has gone backwards, with the government dithering over a major cash injection as global threats rise, the former head of UK military operations has told The National.
As an author of last year’s strategic defence review (SDR), Gen Sir Richard Barrons made key recommendations to the government to remedy the UK’s ailing armed forces but they have been ignored for the past eight months, he said.
“The armed forces know what they have to do but they just don't have the money to do it,” he said.
His concerns have been echoed by the report’s other author, former Nato secretary general George Robertson, who has accused Prime Minister Keir Starmer of putting the country “in peril” by failing to make the necessary investment.
In a speech on Tuesday the former Labour defence secretary accused “non-military experts in the treasury” of “vandalism”. He added: “We cannot defend Britain with an ever-expanding welfare budget.”
The review highlights the urgency to “fix defence for the world that we live in now”, said Sir Richard, which meant increasing spending from 2.4 per cent of gross domestic product to 2.7 per cent this year, then 3.5 per cent within 10 years.
But global events call for an acceleration “when the world and our allies are saying this needs you to be stronger in three to five years, that means you're going to have to go faster and find more money sooner”.
Instead, the SDR report has been with No 10 Downing Street since September, with the delay to deciding on a spending plan only making the situation worse.
“Our ability to defend our homeland, to make a contribution to Nato, is too thin,” the former head of Joint Forces Command said.
“What actually has happened is that it [spending] went backwards with the failure to settle the defence investment plan, which should have been out in September and is still on the Prime Minister's desk.”
He decried the poor state of the UK military, with forces “thin in terms of ammunition, stockpiles, money for training, spare parts and logistics”.
The Royal Navy did not have resources to buy sonar buoys while the British Army “has almost nothing”, with Sweden now asking for 14 artillery pieces it lent the UK to be returned.
Ultimately, the military needs an additional £28 billion ($38 billion) over the next four years and “you can't close that by economising on tea and biscuits for senior officers”, Sir Richard concluded.
Mr Robertson has called out the government's under-resourcing of the defence strategy once oversaw. Referring to US President Donald Trump’s criticism of Nato, the former secretary general of the alliance accused the government of paying lip service to the risks. “Recent days have shown that the role and priorities of the United States have shifted and will never be the same again,” he said.
The UK government has committed to spending 2.5 per cent of its GDP 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.
Mr Starmer told MPs 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”.
Former Navy commander and military analyst Tom Sharpe suggested the review’s “grand strategic plan had not been published because there isn't enough money” and it would lead to cuts that include a promised increase in Type-26 and Type-31 warships.
“You've got an unaffordable SDR, where you end up with capabilities getting cut and in the current climate that would be suicide so what this needs is Starmer taking charge of the Treasury,” he said.
