‘Britain is in danger…our moat has vanished – so I had to speak out. | UK | News

Two former Labour defence secretaries have publicly broken ranks with the Government, calling on ministers to cut benefits spending and channel the money into Britain’s armed forces amid growing alarm over national security.

Lord Robertson, the former Nato chief who wrote last year’s strategic defence review, delivered a stark warning to an audience in Salisbury that the country’s security had been gravely compromised by the Government’s reluctance to raise defence spending.

“The cold reality of today’s dangerous world is that we cannot defend Britain with an ever-expanding welfare budget,” he is reported to have said.

Robertson turned his fire on Chancellor Rachel Reeves, accusing her of starving the Armed Forces of funding while the benefits bill continued to swell unchecked.

“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?”

‘Defining moment’

Lord Hutton, a Labour peer who held both the defence and work and pensions briefs under the last Labour government, lined up behind Robertson and pressed Sir Keir Starmer to seize the moment.

Speaking to Times Radio, he said the Prime Minister 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 argued the Government has “got to get a grip on the rising welfare budget”, cautioning that after nearly two years in office, “there’s no real sign that it’s got any agenda for correcting the very steep rise in welfare payments”.

Triple lock in firing line

Former Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman went further, floating the idea of means-testing the pension triple lock as a way of diverting money towards defence.

She told the BBC: “If you’re strapped for cash and need to divert some money to defence, that is one place to be looking.”

Treasury squeezes MoD

The chorus of concern grew louder as it emerged the Treasury has ordered the Ministry of Defence to identify £3.5billion in savings — a figure that almost precisely matches the bill for the Chancellor’s move to abolish the two-child benefits cap.

According to the Dailty Mail, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the Government’s hesitation had become an “existential” threat to the country, insisting: “We have got to spend more on defence.”

She reportedly said: “The Government does not have a defence investment plan. There is a welfare plan that runs to 2031 but no defence plan.”

Mrs Badenoch renewed her offer to co-operate with Labour on welfare reductions to release money for the military, pointing out that welfare’s share of public spending had ballooned from one pound in every seven to one in every three.

“A lot of that money has basically been swapped for defence,” she said.

‘Thump on the Treasury door’

Tory defence spokesman James Cartlidge described it as “extraordinary” that the Treasury was demanding the MoD absorb cuts in order to pay for removing the two-child cap — a move set to deliver thousands of pounds in additional payments to some of the country’s largest out-of-work households.

“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.”

Plan still sitting on PM’s desk

John Healey had committed to releasing a ten-year Defence Investment Plan by last autumn, but the target was missed as departments clashed behind closed doors over who would foot the bill. On Tuesday, Downing Street could not say when the document — which has been with the Prime Minister for months — would finally be published.

The Government is wrestling with a £28billion shortfall in defence funding projected over the next four years. Ms Reeves has ruled out borrowing to cover it and has made clear she does not intend to revisit defence allocations before a comprehensive spending review pencilled in for the summer of 2027.

‘Our moat has vanished’

When asked why Starmer’s government appeared unwilling to commit to Britain’s defences, Lord Robertson suggested that an ingrained sense of geographical safety may explain why politicians had been slow to act, noting that Britain had never faced invasion as an island nation.

“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,” he said.

He acknowledged that Healey had been “extremely, extremely angry” at his public criticisms, but said he had no regrets.

“My country is in danger, so I felt that I had to speak out.”