Speaking to The Week in Westminster on BBC Radio 4, Dannatt said: “Unless Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves can look at themselves in the mirror and look at their priorities and say, yes, health, education, roads, infrastructure are important, but actually defence and the security of this nation are more important, and 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.
Starmer has so far resisted pressure to boost defence spending to 3% of GDP, with some insiders saying he is determined to stick to Labour’s election manifesto that said it would commit to set out a pathway to spend 2.5% on defence.
That prompted John Healey, the UK defence secretary, to acknowledge the UK and European allies must do more of the “heavy lifting” by increasing their defence spending so the US would not be tempted to leave the Nato alliance altogether, but he did not say when and by how much.
Gen Lord Richard Dannatt believes the forthcoming strategic defence review risks being “hollow” and a “failure” unless the prime minister and his chancellor, Rachel Reeves, find ways of increasing the defence budget.
In a call with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Starmer said Britain was committed to Ukraine being on an “irreversible path” to joining Nato, and was “unequivocal that there could be no talks about Ukraine without Ukraine”.
