The Treasury has signalled there is no new money for defence despite recognising the urgent need to rearm in the wake of Russia's war in Ukraine, defence sources have said.
At the same time, the sources said a "refresh" of UK defence policy - that was meant to inform the spending plans of Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak - could be delayed until after the March budget because an initial draft failed to reflect sufficiently the transformed security environment in Europe, where a land war is raging.
"It is not very joined up government," according to one source, who was speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.
This is fundamental. The UK makes its status as a leading member of @NATO a key pillar of its defence strategy. But what if suddenly that’s no longer the case because the UK can’t meet its NATO commitments and another ally (France or even one day Germany) takes the No2 spot…? https://t.co/EnFI6VefNi
— Deborah Haynes (@haynesdeborah) February 6, 2023
The comments came after Sky News last week revealed that a senior US general had told Defence Secretary Ben Wallace that the British Army is no longer regarded as a top level, or "tier one", fighting force following decades of cuts to its size and strength.
Now, defence sources are warning that Britain will be unable "credibly" to offer as many troops as NATO allies would expect to a major new force structure that is being drawn up by the alliance to bolster its defences in response to the war in Ukraine.
This would only change if Mr Sunak accelerated plans to fix the army's decline, they said.
A senior European diplomatic source confirmed that the UK "is under-delivering". (end of excerpt)
(Click here for the full story, on the Sky News website.)
-ends-
