Funding row over Starmer's 'battle-ready' Britain plans

Sir Keir Starmer's bold defence plans have been overshadowed by a row over money as he was warned Britain may not be moving quickly enough to counter the rapidly growing threat from Russia.

- DAVID MADDOX, KATE DEVLIN, MILLIE COOKE

The prime minister yesterday vowed to make Britain “a battleready, armour-clad nation” as he unveiled his strategic defence review (SDR) at the Govan shipbuilding yard in Scotland, which included a “more lethal” army boosted to 100,000 personnel, 12 new submarines, drones and a rollout of artificial intelligence.

Defence secretary John Healey said: “We are in a new era of threat, which demands a new era for UK defence.”

But questions were raised over Sir Keir’s big ambitions to make Britain “safer and stronger” after he refused to commit to spending 3 per cent of gross domestic product on defence by 2034 – which the review warned was essential to ensure the plans were affordable.

With a backdrop of “turbulent times” and a promise to learn lessons from the Ukraine conflict, the report even warned “it may be necessary to go faster” on increasing the UK’s defence capabilities.

Responding to the point, Sir Keir admitted: “Russia is already menacing our skies and our waters, and threatening cyberattacks, so this is a real threat we’re dealing with.”

The armed forces suffer from “inadequate” stockpiles, medical services that cannot cope with a mass-casualty conflict and a personnel “crisis” that means only a “small” number of troops are ready to be deployed, the SDR warned.

The long-awaited 130-page SDR, put together for the government by a team headed by Labour peer and former Nato chief George Robertson, made 62 eye-catching recommendations, including:

• Making the armed forces “10 times more lethal” while increasing the size from 80,000 to 100,000 personnel

• Building up to 12 attack submarines for the Royal Navy as part of the Australia-UK-US Aukus

• Procuring up to 7,000 long-range weapons built in the UK and opening of at least six new munitions factories