Sir Keir Starmer has launched a “root and branch” strategic defence review to overhaul the Armed Forces, how they are recruited, funded, equipped and run by government departments.
The review is to be overseen by an external panel from outside Whitehall led by George Robertson, 78, the former Nato secretary general, who conducted Tony Blair’s groundbreaking defence review of 1998.
Briefing journalists about the scope of the review, the new Defence Secretary John Healey said the forces suffered from years of neglect and had become “hollowed out”. All three services are under strength, with more leaving the ranks than joining. The process of recruiting is too long and cumbersome, with three out of four would-be recruits dropping out, as the joining process can take nearly a year. Housing and terms of service are also major issues.
These issues are to be addressed immediately in a reform programme, before the review reports in the summer of next year.
Leading the review with Lord Robertson are General Sir Richard Barrons, former head of Joint Forces Command and one of the Army’s leading thinkers, and Dr Fiona Hill, 58, former adviser to Presidents Trump and Obama on Russia, who is Chancellor of Durham University.
She also has a particular insight into the recruiting crisis. With Professor Sir Paul Collier of Oxford, she is involved in helping the “Left Behind” former mining communities of Durham and South Yorkshire. Making service attractive in ageing societies is one of the biggest challenges.
The review is to address the pledge to raise defence funding to 2.5 per cent of GDP. Sir Keir has said a “road map” to achieve this will be laid out at a ‘fiscal event’ in the next few days.
A major difference between this review and the two strategic reviews of the Conservative government in 2021 and 2023 is the emphasis on the threats from spreading war in Europe from Ukraine, and from China in the Pacific. “We are faced with a new deadly, and highly unstable, quartet of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea,” Lord Robertson said.
Defence chiefs emphasise that the UK wants to work closer with allies, from the US and Northern European allies of Nato, to the grouping of the US, Japan, and Australia in the Indo-Pacific.
Looming over the whole defence debate now is the likelihood of a Donald Trump and JD Vance leadership in the United States — especially with the latter’s known views about cutting support for Ukraine. “If the US pulls back from Europe — and the Russians continue the way they’re going, it’s likely we’d need to spend 5 per cent of GDP on defence and security,” a military commander said privately, “at least.”
