Former SAS officer Richard Williams has claimed that most of the additional £15 billion of funding for defence announced by the Prime Minister “is not even real”.
Williams, a former Commanding Officer of 22 SAS, told The Camilla Tominey Show on GB News: “Everybody that’s serious about defence realises that it’s not enough, and of the 15 billion extra that they’ve promised, with the majority of it coming from a combination of savings and efficiencies, is not even real.
“I don’t think he’s being honest. If he listened to people such as the late Alex Younger of MI6, who referred to the need to invest in hard power, we should all pay attention.
“Yes, they were increasing defence spending, well they have a promise to [increase it] to 2.7 per cent over the next three to four years, but when they conducted a review led by Lord Robertson and others only very recently, who said we need this certain number executed in a certain way, and the government doesn’t come back and deliver on it.
“We’ve got to believe Alex Younger, Lord Robertson and others are right, and the Prime Minister is wrong.”
He added: “They should go all the way to the £28 billion, and you see when you go into the details, what you’re seeing is an attempt to recover under-investment in our nuclear submarine capability, which is absolutely critical.
“As you know, recently it was declared, much to my amazement that we are unable to keep that capability at sea. That’s genuinely shocking at this particular moment in time.
“We hear constantly about, and it’s similar under the Conservatives in 2010 when they did their SDSR, a wish to achieve efficiencies with the MoD, so that there is less tail to military tooth, but again, over 10 years worth of that type of talk in two different governments hasn’t delivered it.
“When I look at this particular government and the Prime Minister, looking and saying I am going to execute seriously on something, I just simply don’t believe it, because what is it they’ve executed seriously on and delivered very, very little, and this is defence. This isn’t some kind of add on to a welfare system. This is what keeps our country safe.”