Richard Barrons backs George Robertson and says UK forces ‘too small and undernourished for the world that we now live in’
Good morning. When Keir Starmer gave evidence to the Commons liaison committee before the Easter recess, and when he made a statement to MPs yesterday on the first day after it was over, he was repeatedly asked when the government will publish its defence investment plan (DIP). On both occasions, he could not give a timetable and would just say it would be published as soon as it was ready.
His critics are furious because the DIP, a 10-year plan explaining how the government will fund its commitment to get defence spending up to 3% of GDP by the end of the next parliament, with total national security spending reaching 5% of GDP by 2035, was due to be published last autumn.
In particular, the DIP will explain how the government will be able to fulfil the goals set out in the strategic defence review it published last year. The review was led by the Labour peer George Robertson, a former defence secretary and former secretary general of Nato. And he seems to have finally lost patience with the government.
He is giving a speech in Salisbury tonight, but Lucy Fisher from the Financial Times has already written up some extracts and in them Robertson is withering about the Treasury. According to Fisher’s report, Robertson will accuse “non-military experts in the Treasury” of “vandalism”, adding: “We cannot defend Britain with an ever-expanding welfare budget.”
