Keir Starmer has been warned the Kremlin must be “smiling” after the government unveiled its defence plans.
The prime minister put the UK on a war footing as he launched the long-awaited strategic defence review (SDR).
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It included plans to build up to 12 new nuclear-powered submarines, six new munitions factories and thousands more long-range weapons.
The authors of the SDR have made it clear defence spending will have to increase to 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) for its recommendations to be carried out.
However, Starmer has refused to guarantee that the government will hit that target in the next parliament.
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Meanwhile, reports claim Nato is looking to force the UK to lift defence spending to 3.5% of GDP as it tries to appease Donald Trump.
So broadcaster Andrew Neil suggested on Monday that Russia would be “smiling” over the spending plans.
Speaking on Times Radio, he said: “Without a firm commitment to raising defence spending to 3% of GDP early in the next parliament, the defence review is barely worth the paper it’s written on.
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“If they don’t put Britain on a war-footing now, the new subs won’t be deployed for at least a decade – by which time, we could all be speaking Russian.”
“The Kremlin must be smiling,” he added.
Former head of the army General Sir Patrick Sanders also told Times Radio he is “really worried” the government is not acting fast enough.
Asked what he believes Putin will be thinking now, Sanders said: “This is one of Europe’s greatest powers, it’s the one that has been the greatest thorn in my side when it comes to challenging me on Ukraine and supporting the Ukrainians, but it doesn’t appear yet to have woken up to the fact that it is not just Ukraine’s fight, this is Europe’s fight and Europe are threatened by Russia.
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“We’ve got to be able to deter Russia because that is so much cheaper than fighting a war with them,” he said.
via Associated Press
Former Tory defence secretary Ben Wallace also told LBC this morning that Putin will now think the west are “not serious”.
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“Putin knows more than anyone how much the war is costing,” Wallace said. “And he will say two things; one, that the west aren’t serious because they’re not really spending the money, and secondly, what we see in Ukraine, is that the west aren’t serious enough because it doesn’t want to put young people in harm’s way and young people are not joining their Armed Forces.”
Pointing to the government’s reluctance to set a time frame for spending 3% of GDP on defence, he said: “Imagine conversations in the Kremlin where they say, ‘no, no, it’s an ambition’.”
Wallace claimed the government has now “resorted to spin and claiming other people’s policies” too, adding: “That is a regret.”
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Senior consulting fellow with the Russia and Eurasia programme at Chatham House, Keir Giles, agreed that the “biggest question mark”over the SDR is over how it will be funded.
“With Keir Starmer still refusing to commit to the funding level that is required as a baseline for the review’s recommendations to be met, it will take a change of heart in government to make use of [the SDR’s] most important findings,” Giles told HuffPost UK.
