Former NATO chief accuses UK’s Starmer of inadequately funding defence
By Sam Tabahriti
LONDON, April 14 (Reuters) – The former NATO chief and top lieutenant for Keir Starmer’s Labor Party criticized the British prime minister on Tuesday for failing to adequately fund defence, leaving the country unsafe.
George Robertson, who served as UK defense minister before leading NATO in the 1990s, told the Financial Times that there was a gap between Starmer’s rhetoric and action on defense and that Starmer was “not willing to make the necessary investment”.
Asked about Robertson’s comments, Starmer’s spokesman told reporters Downing Street “completely” rejected the characterization.
“Making the right decisions is vital. The Prime Minister is determined to ensure that the defense investment plan is appropriate to the threats we face,” the spokesman said.
Robertson, who helped draft the Strategic Defense Review commissioned by Starmer when Labor returns to power in 2024, later told a conference in Salisbury in the south of England that Britain was “becoming vulnerable to external threats”.
“We are underprepared. We are underinsured. We are under attack. We are not safe,” he said.
Ahead of the lecture, the FT reported that he was expected to call out finance minister Rachel Reeves for devoting “just 40 words” to defense in a budget speech last autumn and making no mention of it in last month’s update.
He was expected to describe decisions made by “non-military experts at the Treasury” as “vandalism”, the newspaper said.
‘CORROSIVE LOSSNESS’
Starmer blamed underinvestment in the military on the rival Conservative Party’s 14 years in power and promised the next parliament would deliver the biggest sustained increase in defense spending since the Cold War to 3% of national output.
The government is yet to publish its 10-year defense investment plan, which aims to meet targets set out in the 2024 review co-authored by Robertson and was first planned for before the end of last year.
The review called for a shift towards drones, digital warfare and data-driven warfare systems that reflect lessons learned from the war in Ukraine.
“The current conflict in the Middle East, along with what we have seen in Ukraine, should be a rude wake-up call for this country,” Robertson said in his speech.
“This should remind us of our vulnerabilities in the UK and there are many vulnerabilities and there is a detailed plan for what needs to be done,” he added.
He warned that achieving such a transformation in homeland defense and deterrence would require significant funding.
Last week Starmer said the war in Iran should be a turning point for Britain and vowed to strengthen the economy and military to cope with a more “volatile and dangerous” world.
However, Robertson accused Britain’s political leadership of a “corrosive indifference” to defense; He said risks and threats had only been acknowledged verbally and that even a promised national debate on defense had not yet begun.
“The cold reality of today’s dangerous world is that we cannot defend Britain with an ever-expanding welfare budget.”
(Reporting by Sam Tabahriti, additional reporting by Alistair Smout. Editing by Elizabeth Piper, Peter Graff and Alistair Bell)
