With Sir Keir Starmer under mounting pressure to boost the UK’s defence budget, General Sir Nick Carter said the UK’s ‘remarkably hollow’ Army would be unable to fend off Russia if it needed.
Sir Keir is the only major UK party leader not to have publicly backed calls to hike the defence budget to 2.5 per cent of Britain’s GDP by 2030, from a current level of 2.3 per cent.
Ahead of Sir Keir’s meeting with Mr Trump, Gen Sir Nick said “fundamentally there has got to be some form of guarantee of Ukraine’s sovereignty in the future”.
Gen Sir Nick, who served as chief of the defence staff between 2018 and 2021, warned the Army was “remarkably hollow” and would be unable to fend off an “onslaught” of Russian drones and missiles like those Ukraine has been subjected to.
And, with the US under Mr Trump threatening to withdraw support for Europe, Gen Sir Nick said “whether we like it or not that means we’re going to have to start protecting ourselves”.
