George Robertson, the former Nato secretary general who led the government's defence review, has criticised Prime Minister Keir Starmer's defence investment plan (Dip), calling it insufficient and overly delayed. Speaking to MPs on the defence select committee on Tuesday, Robertson said the plan failed to meet the scale of the challenge facing the UK and had damaged confidence in the defence industry and among Britain's allies gathering in Ankara for the Nato summit.
Robertson warns of growing threat
Robertson told MPs: “We built this strategic defence review based on an assessment of 10 years. That was our assessment at the time for when a peer opponent might challenge the United Kingdom. That clearly has now been accelerated, and quite simply we’re running out of years, and the reality is that the challenge is now bigger, more serious, and earlier than we had anticipated, and yet the defence investment plan itself doesn’t come up to it.”
He added that defence companies would be disappointed, warning: “Some companies will have gone bust in the process as they waited for the degree of certainty that was required in our view.” The Dip was published last week after nearly a year's delay and shortly after the resignation of former defence secretary John Healey.
Cool reception expected at Nato summit
As Starmer travels to Turkey for his final foreign trip as prime minister, Robertson warned he might face a frosty reception. “The prime minister is in Ankara today at the Nato summit and he’ll be sitting tomorrow morning beside President Trump in alphabetical order around the North Atlantic Council table, and I think relations may well be quite frosty. The allies round the table who are all stepping up to the mark, and who are all now spending more on defence, and of course some of the bigger countries, like Germany and Poland, are spending considerably more than we are spending.”
Starmer is expected to arrive in Ankara on Tuesday afternoon, hoping to present a credible plan for increasing UK military spending. However, delays to the Dip and disputes over funding have overshadowed his efforts.
Funding gaps and criticism
Despite the government stating that Robertson's defence review last year was fully funded, military chiefs subsequently requested an additional £28bn to pay for it. The Treasury agreed to an extra £15bn, of which £4.7bn is still unallocated, creating a potential headache for the next prime minister, expected to be Andy Burnham. Government figures and defence bosses have criticised the plan for not setting a deadline for the UK to spend 3.5% of GDP on defence, a target other countries have made more explicit.
On Monday, Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte called for allies to present “clear, concrete and credible plans” to reach the organisation's spending targets. “President Trump fully expects that all allies will step up immediately and get on the path to 5% and do it with urgency,” Rutte said.
