Ex-Nato chief behind defence review says Starmer’s military spending plan is too little, too late

The former Nato chief who led the government’s defence review has criticised the prime minister’s plan to pay for it, calling the defence investment plan (Dip) insufficient and overly delayed.

George Robertson, the former Nato general secretary, told MPs on Tuesday that the Dip had damaged confidence in the defence industry and among Britain’s allies who are gathering in Ankara this week for the Nato summit.

Lord Robertson’s comments add to widespread criticism of the Dip, which was published last week after nearly a year’s delay and shortly after the last-minute resignation of the former defence secretary John Healey.

Robertson told MPs on the defence select committee: “We built this strategic defence review based on an assessment of 10 years. That was our assessment at the time for when a peer opponent might challenge the United Kingdom.

“That clearly has now been accelerated, and quite simply we’re running out of years, and the reality is that the challenge is now bigger, more serious, and earlier than we had anticipated, and yet the defence investment plan itself doesn’t come up to it.”

He said defence companies would be disappointed in the plan, adding: “Some companies will have gone bust in the process as they waited for the degree of certainty that was required in our view.”

As Keir Starmer travels to Turkey for his final foreign trip as prime minister, Robertson warned he was likely to face a cool reception.

“The prime minister is in Ankara today at the Nato summit and he’ll be sitting tomorrow morning beside President Trump in alphabetical order around the North Atlantic Council table, and I think relations may well be quite frosty.

“The allies round the table who are all stepping up to the mark, and who are all now spending more on defence, and of course some of the bigger countries, like Germany and Poland, are spending considerably more than we are spending.”

Starmer is expected to arrive in Ankara on Tuesday afternoon with what he was hoping would be seen as a credible plan for increasing UK military spending.

However, the delays to the Dip and the argument about how much the government is willing to spend have overshadowed what the prime minister had hoped would be part of his legacy.

Despite the government saying Robertson’s defence review last year was fully funded, military chiefs subsequently asked for an additional £28bn to pay for it. The Treasury agreed to an additional £15bn, £4.7bn of which is still to be allocated, leaving a potential headache for the next prime minister, expected to be Andy Burnham.

Government figures and defence bosses have criticised the plan for not setting a deadline for the UK to spend 3.5% of its gross domestic product on defence, something about which other countries have been more explicit.

On Monday Mark Rutte, Nato’s secretary general, called for the allies to present “clear, concrete and credible plans” to reach the organisation’s spending targets.

“President Trump fully expects that all allies will step up immediately and get on the path to 5% and do it with urgency,” Rutte said.