Sir Keir Starmer is under pressure from former military chiefs to increase defence spending amid warnings that the world is more dangerous than at any time since 1945.
The prime minister will attend a Nato summit in Washington on Wednesday, his first foreign trip since the general election, where he is expected to push for Ukraine to be put on an “irreversible” path to membership. He will also hold face-to-face talks at the White House with President Biden.
On his first day in Downing Street last Friday, Starmer called President Zelensky of Ukraine and stressed that “the change of government in the UK would make no difference to the UK’s support”.
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However, in an interview with The Times, General Sir Patrick Sanders, the former head of the army, warned that Britain’s armed forces were so worn down that they were only able to fight a small war for no longer than a month.
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He said that troop numbers had fallen alarmingly because of cuts and that ammunition stockpiles were dangerously low. The true size of the army’s stockpiles after two years of donations to Ukraine “would put the hairs up on the back of your neck,” Sanders added.
He warned that the “new axis powers” of Russia, China and Iran pose an even more lethal challenge than the Nazi alliance in 1939. Nato, Sanders said, may have less than five years to substantially re-arm to ward off a Russian attack.
Sanders’s comments come as dozens were killed in Ukraine after Russian missiles caused extensive damage to a children’s hospital and a medical facility in Kyiv.
Starmer has pledged to increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of national income but declined to commit to a date for doing so.
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However, Sanders said that even 2.5 per cent of GDP was too small and called for spending to rise to “closer to 3 per cent”. He said that the world is facing “as dangerous a moment as any time that we have had since 1945”.
“At the moment, what we’re being asked to do by the government is well beyond what we are funded or capable of doing,” he said. “We are carrying some very, very big financial commitments at the moment, the biggest is the renewal of the nuclear deterrent, which is absolutely necessary to do.
“But we’re trying to do that at the same time as modernising the air force, the Navy and the Army, and restock empty magazines, and regrow our defence industrial base, and ensure that we’re looking after our people properly in terms of their accommodation and their reward packages. What we have at the moment doesn’t stack up to doing all of that.”
The four-star general, who was chief of the general staff from 2022 until last month, said he considered resigning “a number of times” over his concerns about resourcing. He decided to stay in his position because he thought quitting “would not have had any impact”.
His warnings also echoed calls this week from eastern Nato countries bordering Russia who will urge alliance leaders in Washington DC — including Starmer — to raise its minimum national military spending target to 3 per cent of GDP.
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Despite a recent push, 20 out of the 31 Nato members still spend less than 2 per cent, including France and Germany. Britain spends 2.3 per cent — with the fifth-largest defence budget in the world, behind the US, China, Russia and India. In comparison, Poland spends 4.1 per cent and Estonia 3.4 per cent.
Starmer was also urged to name a date for raising defence spending to 2.5 per cent of national income by Lord West of Spithead, a former First Sea Lord and ex-chair of the National Security Forum.
So far, Starmer has failed to match the former prime minister Rishi Sunak’s target of 2030, instead saying the rise will happen “as soon as resources allow”.
Ministers are expected to launch a strategic defence review to audit the state of Britain’s armed forces, threats facing the country and resources needed to counter them.
West, a Labour peer, said: “I think we ought to say when we are going to get to 2.5 per cent. ‘When the situation allows’ is not really good enough — Putin will not wait for our situation to be good enough before he attacks.”
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West welcomed Labour’s plans to publish a defence strategic review to “articulate how we will move to 2.5 per cent”. But he added: “Under the Conservatives’ plan, money was already starting to flow into the programme. So if you don’t say you’re going to reach 2.5 per cent by 2030, then nothing is being added.
“We’re ahead of lots of other nations, but we should still be aspiring to that,” West said of a date to reach the 2.5 per cent target. “It would be a very good message to the Americans, not least to Donald Trump.”
Starmer will join 31 other leaders of Nato countries in Washington to mark the military alliance’s 75th anniversary.
Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary-general, said in April that Ukraine’s “rightful place is in Nato”, adding: “The work we are undertaking now puts you on an irreversible path towards Nato membership, so that when the time is right, Ukraine can become a Nato member straight away.”
Starmer is understood to back moves to put Ukraine on an irreversible path to membership, and stressed directly to Zelensky that Britain’s support was “unwavering”.
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A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “We know these are serious times — war in Europe, conflict in the Middle East, growing Russian aggression, increasing global threats — which is why we’re we are totally committed to spending 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence.
“We know we face serious challenges after years of hollowing out of our armed forces and our strategic defence review will assess the threats we face and the capabilities needed to address them in order to secure our nation’s defences.”
