Ex-Royal Navy chief blasts government’s ‘meaningless’ stance on defence

In a scathing broadside on Whitehall, Admiral Lord Alan West blasted Downing Street for ‘insulting’ cuts on military coffers.

The furious navy chief’s critique comes after the Queen’s Speech, in which the monarch outlined Boris Johnson’s future spending plans.

Lord West, who was a former security advisor to Labour PM Gordon Brown, fumed that only a passing reference had been made about defence in the address – 26 words in all.

In a fiery retort at the House of Lords, the outspoken Labour peer said: ‘The statement that: “My government will continue to invest in our gallant armed forces” is meaningless.

‘There are presumably idealists who would not wish to invest in our armed forces, but in this very dangerous world, while we may try to avoid conflict, the same, I am afraid, is not true of everyone whom we confront in this world.’

During September’s spending review, the Ministry of Defence was given £2.2bn, a rise of 2.6 per cent.

But the military is still facing a huge funding crisis shortfall.

In February, the public accounts committee, the House of Commons’ spending watchdog, warned the MoD faced a £7bn black hole in its 10-year plan to equip the armed forces.

Lord West backed a review to ‘assess the nation’s place in the world’ but demanded ‘clarity’ on Britain’s foreign policy now that ‘so many of the old certainties’ had ‘disappeared and been replaced by confusion’.

He branded previous strategic defence and security reviews in 2010 and 2015 ‘incoherent cost-cutting exercises with little regard to strategy or strategic thought’.

‘It seems that our political culture recognises only as much threat as it is willing to spend money on, rather than the realities of the world,’ the Falklands veteran said.

Repeated warnings that there wasn’t ‘sufficient’ cash in defence had been ignored ‘time and time again’, Lord West said

‘I am afraid that there is a large lobby, including senior officials in Whitehall. who are willing to take ever greater risks with the defence of our nation,’ he added.