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Sir Keir Starmer is under pressure to raise defence spending ahead of his first Nato summit as prime minister.
A day after the deadliest strikes by Vladimir Putin’s forces in Ukraine for months, the Labour leader is facing calls to hike spending on defence towards 3 per cent of GDP to keep Britain safe.
Former head of the army General Sir Patrick Sanders has warned that the UK’s armed forces are so depleted they could only fight a small war for around a month.
The ex-army boss said Britain’s ammunition stockpiles are so low it “would put the hairs up on the back of your neck”. And, in an interview with The Times, he said the “new axis powers” of Russia, China and Iran pose a deadlier threat than the Nazi alliance in 1939.
“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.”
Sir Keir has promised to boost Britain’s defence budget to 2.5 per cent of GDP, but Sir Patrick said that figure needed to be “closer to 3 per cent”.
Currently Britain spends around 2.3 per cent of GDP on defence, while Nato members including France and Germany spend less than 2 per cent.
It comes after a Russian missile hit a children’s hospital in Kyiv on Tuesday, killing at least 41 civilians, including three children.
Kyiv declared a day of mourning on Tuesday in the wake of one of the worst air attacks in the Russian invasion and the deadliest in four months.
Conservative MPs said the attack showed the need for Sir Keir to hike Britain’s defence spending, calling on the PM to “show he is serious about it”. Ex-defence secretary Sir Gavin Williamson told the Daily Mail: “If the new PM’s commitment to defence is going to be more than just warm words – if he is going to show he is serious about it – then he is going to have to make that shift to 2.5 per cent and provide a concrete timetable for getting there.”
Sir Keir is flying to Washington, DC on Tuesday night to meet President Biden and other world leaders at the Nato summit.
The Labour leader will try to reassure the nuclear alliance of his party’s “unshakeable” support under his leadership.
The PM spoke to Volodymyr Zelensky on his first day in office and with the Ukrainian leader also set to be in Washington the two leaders may hold talks in person.
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.”
