A damning investigation based on interviews with nearly every UK defence secretary since the Cold War has concluded the country is "really unprepared" to fight a war. The findings, revealed in two new episodes of the Sky News and Tortoise podcast series The Wargame, expose a decades-long saga where funding was switched from warfare to peacetime priorities, leaving military strength as a "mirage".
A Legacy of Cuts and Complacency
The story begins with the collapse of the Soviet Union, after which successive Labour, Conservative, and coalition governments reaped a "peace dividend". Funding was diverted to health and welfare, while defence budgets were cut and militaries shrunk. Behind the scenes, this process was marked by heated rows between the Ministry of Defence and the Treasury, threats of ministerial resignations, and dire, ignored warnings of growing weakness.
Sir Ben Wallace, Defence Secretary from 2019 to 2023, starkly summarised the situation: "We've been living on a sort of mirage for so long. As long as Trooping the Colour was happening, and the Red Arrows flew, and prime ministers could pose at NATO, everything was fine. But it wasn't fine." He added that America and Russia were acutely aware of the UK's vulnerabilities.
'Lifting the Bonnet' on Bare Cupboards
The podcast features candid admissions from figures across the political spectrum. Labour's Lord George Robertson, Defence Secretary from 1997 to 1999, said a recent review left him shocked. "We don't have enough ammunition, we don't have enough logistics, we don't have enough trained soldiers... and we don't have enough medics," he stated, concluding the situation was "much worse" than he had imagined.
Former Conservative defence secretary Sir Gavin Williamson (2017-2019) said he was "quite shocked as to how thin things were," describing a Treasury mindset that the MoD could always lose a billion pounds without consequence. "The cupboards were really bare," he revealed.
However, Lord Philip Hammond, who served as both Defence Secretary and Chancellor, offered a contrasting view, suggesting some of his successors had not sufficiently interrogated military requests for more funding.
The Fight to Save Budgets and a Returning Threat
The series uncovers secret battles to protect defence spending. Lord Robertson recounted how he and two junior ministers threatened to resign during a late-night meeting with Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1998 to stop Chancellor Gordon Brown from cutting their budget. "We obviously didn't resign - but we kept the money," he said.
Now, with the threat from Russia resurgent, there is a profound concern that the UK has been left bluffing about its capabilities. The podcast, which simulates a Russian attack on the UK in its first five episodes, seeks to explain how this vulnerability came to be. Contributors from across governments, including Geoff Hoon, Liam Fox, and Sir Grant Shapps, alongside military chiefs like Field Marshal Lord Richards, admit to systemic failure. Sir Grant Shapps stated bluntly: "Yes, I think it did cut defence too far."
The overarching revelation is of a hollowed-out fighting force, compromised not just by budget cuts but by ineffective spending of the significant funds that remained, leaving the nation in a perilous position as global threats intensify.
