Two former Labour defence secretaries last night urged ministers to slash welfare to boost spending on security.
In an excoriating speech, former Nato chief Lord Robertson said national security had been left ‘in peril’ by Labour’s failure to increase defence spending.
‘The cold reality of today’s dangerous world is that we cannot defend Britain with an ever-expanding welfare budget,’ the Labour grandee told an audience in Salisbury.
Lord Robertson, who wrote the Government’s strategic defence review last year, accused Rachel Reeves of blocking funding for the Armed Forces and urged ministers to free up cash by slashing the bloated benefits budget.
‘Britain’s welfare budget is now five times the amount we spend on defence. So I ask, are we certain that this is the right priority – jeopardising people’s future safety and security, while maintaining an increasingly unsustainable welfare bill?’
He was backed by fellow Labour peer Lord Hutton, who served as both defence and work and pensions secretary in the last Labour government.
Lord Hutton urged Sir Keir to grip the issue as the ‘defining moment in his premiership’, saying he has ‘a very, very short period of time to start putting this right and sending out the signals to Vladimir Putin’ that Britain is serious about defending itself.
He told Times Radio that the Government has ‘got to get a grip on the rising welfare budget’. But he warned that, almost two years in, ‘there’s no real sign that it’s got any agenda for correcting the very steep rise in welfare payments’.
Last night, Labour’s former deputy leader Harriet Harman suggested means-testing the pension triple lock, telling the BBC: ‘If you’re strapped for cash and need to divert some money to defence, that is one place to be looking.’
Despite the warnings, it emerged last night that the Treasury is pushing the Ministry of Defence to find £3.5billion in cuts this year – almost the exact cost of the Chancellor’s decision to scrap the two-child benefits cap.
Kemi Badenoch said Labour’s dithering on the issue was now an ‘existential’ problem for the country, saying: ‘We have got to spend more on defence.’
The Conservative leader added: ‘The Government does not have a defence investment plan. There is a welfare plan that runs to 2031 but no defence plan.’
Mrs Badenoch repeated her offer to work with Labour to push through welfare cuts to free up resources for defence.
‘We used to spend one in every seven pounds on welfare,’ she said. ‘Now it’s one in every three pounds and a lot of that money has basically been swapped for defence.’
Tory defence spokesman James Cartlidge said it was ‘extraordinary’ that the Treasury was demanding cuts to defence to fund the lifting of the two-child cap, which will hand thousands of pounds in extra benefits to some of Britain’s biggest jobless families.
‘We’ve got a former Labour defence secretary saying cut welfare to fund defence,’ he told the Daily Mail. ‘We need the current Defence Secretary to thump on the door of the Treasury and say, enough is enough.
‘Let’s take some tough decisions and cut welfare to fund defence.’
Last year, Defence Secretary John Healey said Labour would publish the ten-year Defence Investment Plan by the autumn.
But the deadline came and went amid bitter Whitehall infighting over how to pay for it. Downing Street was unable to say on Tuesday when it would be published, despite the fact it has been on the Prime Minister’s desk for months.
Ministers are grappling with how to fill a £28billion black hole in defence funding over the next four years. Ms Reeves has warned she will not risk breaking her fiscal rules by borrowing the money.
The Chancellor has also signalled she is unwilling to look again at future defence spending until a planned comprehensive spending review in the summer of 2027.
Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden is working on a package of welfare reforms but has warned against trying to find significant savings this year.
Lord Robertson last night warned that the Government could not afford to delay a decision on defence spending.
Pointing the finger at the Chancellor, he accused ‘non-military experts in the Treasury’ of ‘vandalism’.
The peer said: ‘Three reviewers – a former defence secretary, a former general and a current foreign policy guru – were hired by Keir Starmer and John Healey to look at every aspect of UK defence, which we did with the aid of more than 150 experts and an unprecedented public consultation.
‘If our recommendations were implemented, then we might be prepared for an opponent like Russia or a China in ten years’ time. What is happening in the world today does not give us anything like ten years.’
Asked why politicians were apathetic towards defence, Lord Robertson said: ‘I think it’s to do with the fact that we are an island nation and we’ve never been invaded. Maybe that’s why there’s an unrealistic sense of security.
‘In a world of hypersonic missiles, of long-range drones, of intercontinental missiles, suddenly that moat around our coast, and our distance from trouble, has vanished completely.’
The peer said Mr Healey had been ‘extremely, extremely angry’ when he presented his criticisms, ‘but sometimes you just have to say something.
‘My country is in danger, so I felt that I had to speak out’.
The Mail has kept the pressure on the Government to raise spending through its Don’t Leave Britain Defenceless campaign.
Downing Street denied the suggestion that government dithering was putting Britain at risk.
