Former NATO Secretary General George Robertson delivered a stinging rebuke to Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Tuesday, accusing the government of a “corrosive complacency” that has left the United Kingdom dangerously unprepared for conflict. Robertson, a former Labour Defense Secretary who led the government’s own Strategic Defence Review (SDR), warned that a widening gap between the Prime Minister’s rhetoric and his financial commitments is placing national security “in peril.”
In a speech scheduled for Tuesday evening, Robertson is expected to describe the ongoing war with Iran as a “rude wake-up call” for a political leadership that he claims is prioritizing welfare spending over essential military investment. “We are underprepared. We are underinsured. We are under attack. We are not safe… Britain’s national security and safety is in peril,” Robertson stated in extracts of his speech.
He specifically targeted the Treasury, accusing “non-military experts” of “vandalism” for allegedly blocking the funding necessary to modernize the British armed forces. “We cannot defend Britain with an ever-expanding welfare budget,” he added.
The criticism follows a series of delays to the government’s promised Defence Investment Plan (DIP), which was intended to outline how the 62 recommendations of Robertson’s SDR would be funded.
While a Downing Street spokesperson maintained that the government has delivered the “largest sustained increase in defense spending since the Cold War,” with a total of over £270 billion being invested across this Parliament, critics point to a projected £28 billion funding gap in existing plans.
General Sir Richard Barrons, co-author of the SDR, echoed Robertson’s concerns, noting that while the UK is moving in the right direction, it would take a decade to be “war-ready” at current speeds—despite intelligence suggesting a “three-to-five-year” window before a potential direct conflict with Russia.
This domestic pressure coincides with escalating tensions between London and Washington. U.S. President Donald Trump has recently taken aim at Starmer’s leadership, particularly following the Prime Minister’s initial hesitation to allow U.S. forces to use the Diego Garcia airbase for strikes against Iranian targets. “This is not Winston Churchill we’re dealing with,” Trump remarked on March 3, later suggesting that the UK was no longer the “Rolls-Royce of allies.”
With the UK government aiming to raise defense spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 and 3.5% by 2035, Robertson’s intervention signals a growing consensus among military experts that the current pace of investment is insufficient to meet the urgent threats of the late 2020s.