‘Bizarre’ lack of urgency in putting UK on war footing, says defence review co-author

Keir Starmer on the flight deck of HMS Prince of Wales, the Royal Navy's flagship aircraft carrier, in Plymouth, Devon, last year. Photograph: Richard Pohle/PA

A co-author of Britain’s strategic defence review has joined criticism of Keir Starmer’s leadership on military policy, warning of a “bizarre” lack of urgency in defence planning.

Fiona Hill, a former chief adviser to the White House on Russia, echoed the concerns of George Robertson, her co-author with Gen Richard Barrons on the strategic defence review (SDR), over what he had called the prime minister’s “corrosive complacency”.