An expert has voiced concern that Britain remains unprepared for a large-scale conflict
The UK could be forced into introducing conscription, an expert has warned (Image: Getty)
A military expert has warned that the UK is ill-prepared for a major conflict, and could sleepwalk into having to introduce conscription. Former Air Vice-Marshal in the RAF, Sean Bell, was speaking during one of his regular appearance on Sky News after John Healey resigned as Defence Secretary, suggesting that Sir Keir Starmer was unwilling or unable to overrule the Treasury to secure a sufficient increase in defence spending, without which the UK would be less safe.
While the Government has committed to spending 3.5% of GDP on defence by 2035, Mr Healey said the plan he was presented with on Monday moved too slowly, with defence spending rising to just 2.68% in 2030 after hitting 2.6% next year. After Mr Healey walked, Al Carns quit as a defence minister, writing to the Prime Minister to tell him that he could not defend “a level of investment I know to be inadequate to the task”. Sean said that during the Cold War, more than 4% of the UK’s GDP was being spent on defence as there was a credible threat, in the Soviet Union.
John Healey resigned yesterday (Image: Getty)
But, after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Britain has “largely been fighting wars of choice”, he added, and enjoyed a peace dividend.
If spending had been kept at Cold War levels during this time, £1.4trillion more would have been ploughed into the defence budget, the expert added.
But this money has been used elsewhere, Sean added, and the UK has tailored its military for wars of choice overseas. He then said: “Now, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, suddenly we’re faced with wars of national survival.
“And that’s very different, and we’ve seen over the last few weeks and months.
“The Royal Navy has been ill-configured to go and actually support the conflicts across in the Middle East.
“We’ve also got huge shortfalls in our ability to protect our nation from ballistic missile threats and stuff like that.
“And all of that means that you need to spend significantly more money.”
Britain’s military leaders are “not allowed to speak publicly about this”, Sean said.
“They are filtered by the political classes, and therefore, their anger, their frustration has been building,” he added.
“And, quite bluntly, at the moment, it does feel as if we are singly ill-prepared.
“The best way to deter war is to prepare for it.
“If we don’t prepare for it, then it’ll rush at us in a hurry, and we’ll be faced with conscription and all sorts of really horrible outcomes.”
