Former NATO chief says UK security at risk as defence investment plan delayed

Britain’s national security is at risk due to underinvestment in defence and delays to key government plans, a former NATO secretary general has warned.

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Lord George Robertson, a former Labour defence secretary who led the government’s Strategic Defence Review (SDR), said the UK was increasingly vulnerable and criticised what he described as complacency among political leaders.

Speaking in Salisbury on Tuesday, he said the country was “under-prepared” to face growing global threats and urged the government to prioritise defence spending.

Warning over defence readiness

Lord Robertson argued that the UK’s armed forces and security structures were not adequately equipped for current dangers.

“We are under-prepared. We are under-insured. We are under attack,” he said. “Britain’s national security and safety is in peril.”

He accused Britain’s leadership of failing to respond decisively to mounting risks, saying that although threats were acknowledged, meaningful action had yet to follow.

“There is a corrosive complacency today in Britain’s political leadership,” he said. “Lip service is paid to the risks and the bright red signals of danger.”

The former NATO chief also criticised delays to the government’s Defence Investment Plan, which is intended to outline how the recommendations of the Strategic Defence Review will be funded over the coming decade.

The SDR, published in June 2025, set out 62 recommendations designed to strengthen the UK’s military capability and shift the armed forces towards greater “war-fighting readiness”.

Although ministers accepted all the recommendations, details of how the programme will be financed have not yet been published.

Lord Robertson described the funding plan as “overdue”.

Government rejects criticism

The government rejected suggestions that defence had been neglected.

Defence minister Luke Pollard said officials were working intensively to finalise the investment plan and insisted that funding for the armed forces was already increasing.

“We already have extra money in our budget this year,” he said, adding that new defence contracts were being announced to ensure troops had the equipment needed to deter aggression.

A government spokesperson also said the latest spending review included the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War, with more than £270bn allocated across the current parliament.

Downing Street said the Defence Investment Plan would be published “as soon as possible”.

Defence spending currently stands at about 2.3% of the UK’s economic output, roughly £66bn a year. The government has pledged to raise this to 3% by the end of the next parliament and to 3.5% of GDP by 2035.

Debate over spending priorities

In his speech, Lord Robertson suggested Britain could not maintain security while welfare spending continued to expand.

“We cannot defend Britain with an ever-expanding welfare budget,” he said.

Government forecasts show welfare spending reaching about £322.6bn in 2025–26, equivalent to 10.6% of GDP.

Efforts by ministers to reduce welfare spending last year were dropped after strong opposition from Labour backbenchers.

Several political figures echoed concerns about defence funding. Tan Dhesi, chair of the House of Commons Defence Committee, described Lord Robertson’s warning as “sobering” and said government rhetoric had yet to match the scale of the challenge.

Growing international pressure

The debate comes amid heightened international tension following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and renewed pressure on NATO allies to increase military spending.

General Sir Richard Barrons, another author of the Strategic Defence Review, said there was a “significant gap” between Britain’s current capabilities and what would be required to ensure national security.

He warned that European NATO members may have to take on a greater role in the future as the United States becomes less directly involved in regional defence.

“The US cavalry is not coming to bail us out now,” he said, adding that the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force were both too small to meet emerging threats.

NATO leaders have agreed to increase defence spending targets over the next decade, with members expected to devote at least 3.5% of GDP to core defence expenditure by 2035.

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Adapted by ASEAN Now. Source 15 April 2026