“Unless Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves can find ways of producing more money, well beyond 2.5% towards 3% or 3.5% for starters on our defence budget, then this strategic defence review is going to be hollow, it’s going to be a failure and, frankly, it’ll consign Keir Starmer to the bin of history,” he said.
Sir Keir Starmer has been warned by a former head of the army that he faces being consigned to the dustbin of history unless the Government significantly hikes defence spending.
Lord Dannatt, head of the army from 2006 to 2009, told BBC Radio 4’s Week in Westminster the UK military is “so run down” it could not lead a future peacekeeping mission in Ukraine.
He said around 40,000 UK troops could be needed for such a mission and “we just haven’t got that number available”.
The UK currently spends around 2.3% of gross domestic product on defence, a figure the Government wants to increase to 2.5%.
