British armed forces 'not ready to fight' a war, Defence Secretary admits
25 October 2024, 05:19
The Defence Secretary has admitted that the British armed forces are unready to fight a war.
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John Healey said that the UK had become "very skilled and ready to conduct military operations", but needed to be "ready to fight" in order to deter hostile countries from becoming aggressive.
He added that ministers found the state of the armed forces was "far worse than we thought" after Labour took power in July.
Earlier this year a former head of the army, General Sir Patrick Sanders, warned that civilians might need to be called up in the event of a war, with the number of troops at its lowest level in centuries.
And the current army chief General Sir Roly Walker, said that the UK must be ready to fight a war in three years and that the size of the fighting force needed to triple.
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Mr Healey said: "The UK, in keeping with many other nations, has essentially become very skilled and ready to conduct military operations.
"What we've not been ready to do is to fight. And unless we are ready to fight, we are not in a shape to deter." He added that this was "at the heart" of thinking within Nato.
The Defence Secretary said: "We've got to not just be capable of defending our Nato nations, but more importantly, got to be more effective in the deterrence that we can provide against any future aggression.
"Our forces need to be able to innovate. We need to be able to take the new technologies and some of the lessons from Ukraine and make what we do more lethal and therefore a stronger deterrence."
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Mr Healey said former defence secretary Ben Wallace told him in the House of Commons last year that Conservative governments had "hollowed out and underfunded the armed forces" over their 14 years in office.
Defence analyst Colonel Simon Diggins agreed, telling LBC that "in the event of a significant threat to us, we would struggle to defend ourselves".
But he added that Mr Healey's comments could be part of "pre-Budget politicking", although the major decisions for the Budget next week have already been made.
A Government spokesperson said: "This government will always do what's required to defend the country. The UK's armed forces are amongst the best in the world and offer a 24/7 defence of the UK - operating alongside our Allies and partners to prepare for any event.
"The Strategic Defence Review will look at the threats we face and the capabilities we need so that our armed forces are better ready to fight, more integrated and more innovative."
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On Wednesday, the UK and Germany signed a defence pact with the aim of closer cooperation in the face of a growing threat from Russia.
Under the agreement, German submarine-hunting planes will operate from RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland and arms giant Rheinmetall is set to open a factory producing artillery gun barrels using British steel.
Mr Healey said on Wednesday that European nations needed to take "more responsibility for the heavy lifting and the leadership within the Nato alliance".
