Robertson warns Treasury vandalism leaves Britain dangerously underprepared for war

Lord George Robertson is preparing to deliver a blunt attack on the Treasury, accusing "non-military experts in the Treasury" of "vandalism" as he argues Britain has become dangerously exposed at a time of rising threat. The former NATO secretary general and former UK defence secretary will say Britain’s national security and safety is "in peril" and that ministers have fallen into "corrosive complacency towards defence".

Robertson’s intervention lands at a sensitive moment for Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, with the government still delaying its promised 10-year defence investment plan meant to fund the Strategic Defence Review’s recommendations. The review, published on 8 July 2025 and led by Robertson alongside General Sir Richard Barrons and Dr Fiona Hill, warned that Russia is waging war on the continent and probing UK defences at home, while the war in Ukraine is transforming the nature of warfare.

The political stakes reach well beyond Westminster. The government committed on 25 February 2025 to lift defence spending to 2.5% of GDP from April 2027, with an ambition to reach 3% in the next parliament. But officials have also warned that the Ministry of Defence faces a serious funding gap and that key spending decisions cannot wait for the review process to finish. HM Treasury, which controls public spending and sets the direction of UK economic policy, is now at the centre of the argument over whether that money can be found without painful trade-offs elsewhere.

Robertson has already warned that Britain lacks ammunition, training, people, logistics and medical capacity, a warning that sits awkwardly beside the public promise of a bigger military footprint. The Royal United Services Institute said in September 2024 that the MoD faced equipment-plan deficits of £3.0 billion in 2024/25 and £3.9 billion in 2025/26, numbers that underline how quickly capability gaps can open even before new commitments take effect.

The broader question is one facing NATO allies across the West: whether governments are underinvesting in defence just as threats multiply from Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. Robertson has described that grouping as a "deadly quartet" of hostile states, and his latest warning points to a deeper burden-sharing debate that matters in Washington as much as in London. If Britain cannot fund the review it commissioned, the message to allies is stark: promises on security may be outpacing the budgets needed to make them real.