The government’s new security strategy said it has to actively prepare for potential wartime scenarios
Britain needs to prepare for the possibility of being attacked on its own soil, the government has warned in its security strategy, laying out in stark terms the range of threats ministers say the UK now faces.
Russia’s military buildup and Iran’s increasing attacks on dissidents abroad mean the country could soon find itself involved in a domestic war, the review says.
The warning echoes recent comments from Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary general, that without a major increase in defence spending, British people “better learn to speak Russian”. Keir Starmer, who is at the Nato summit in The Hague, has promised to meet Nato’s target of spending 5% of gross domestic product on defence by 2035.
The review says: “Some adversaries are laying the foundations for future conflict, positioning themselves to move quickly to cause major disruption to our energy and/or supply chains, to deter us from standing up to their aggression. For the first time in many years, we have to actively prepare for the possibility of the UK homeland coming under direct threat, potentially in a wartime scenario.”
