Andy Burnham should be prepared to face loud calls for increased spending on national security due to the government’s “woefully inadequate” Defence Investment Plan, Lord Richard Dannatt has said.
The former Chief of the General Staff told GB News: “We’ve waited far too long for this Defence Investment Plan. Now, we haven’t got the full details of it. Some of the details were trickled out overnight, and it looks as if about £5 billion extra is being put on the table, but £5 billion is not the £28 billion that the service chiefs have been asking for, and that’s the figure which would get us somewhere near the 3% of GDP that Keir Starmer was talking about in February at the Munich Security Conference.
“So this is a step in the right direction, but it’s not the quantum of increase that our nation demands, and our allies are calling for, and there’s a real funny irony here. If they got on with this a year ago and put a sensible amount of money, John Healey would still be Secretary of State for Defence, and Keir Starmer wouldn’t have come under the pressure that is ultimately going to lead him to the exit of Number 10. So, inaction has consequences, and for Keir Starmer, the consequences: he’s losing his job.”
He added: “if the professionals were arguing for £28 billion to get us to that 3% which the Prime Minister was talking about only as recently as February this year, then the money that’s currently on the table is not sufficient. It doesn’t surprise me that Dan Jarvis has managed to argue a little bit of extra, otherwise why would he have taken the job that John Healey had resigned from?
“He’s a good man, Dan Jarvis, John Healey was a good man too. They both know their stuff, but the bottom line is that increased expenditure has got to be made to keep this country safe and make sure that this country plays its part within NATO to secure the security of Europe.
“If Andy Burnham thinks this is going to go away as a result of today, he’s got another think coming, because the defence lobby voice will remain loud, arguing the case quite clearly that we’ve got to properly look after the security of this country, probably look after the security of Europe, and that requires more like the figure that professionals were calling for, which is about £28 billion to get us up to this 3% and then, of course, the target is 3.5% at some point in the next decade.
“These problems have got to be grasped, they can’t be brushed under the carpet, as has been going on for far too long at the top end of government.”
Asked where investment is most needed, Lord Dannatt said: “We need investment in our navy, in our army, our air force, in cyber, and all the other forms of warfare, you can’t get away with a cheap option. And there’s talk about now an emphasis on drones. Frankly, the armed forces have had drones throughout the last 25, 30 years…the previous government understood this and had begun a significant programme that unfortunately has been paused, and this is one of the sadnesses.
“Having spent a year coming up with a Strategic Defence Review, we’ve now had to wait another year for the Defence Investment Plan, which itself is woefully inadequate to finance the Defence Review that they signed off last year. Delay has led to insecurity, it’s led to the Defence Secretary resigning, and it’s led to the Prime Minister losing his job, and this is entirely of their own making, and frankly, if Andy Burnham, as I said just now, thinks this problem is going to go away, it’s not going to go away.”