By Sam Tabahriti
LONDON, April 14 (Reuters) - Britain's national security is "in peril" because of political complacency and under-investment in defence, former NATO chief George Robertson will say on Tuesday, in a rare public rebuke of Prime Minister Keir Starmer's handling of military spending.
Robertson, who helped draft a Strategic Defence Review commissioned by Starmer when Starmer's Labour Party came to power in 2024, is expected to say in a lecture that Britain has become increasingly exposed to external threats.
Robertson, who served in the 1990s as a Labour defence secretary, told the Financial Times there was a gap between the prime minister's rhetoric and action on defence, and Starmer was "not willing to make the necessary investment".
In his lecture, to be delivered later on Tuesday in Salisbury, southern England, he is expected to call out finance minister Rachel Reeves for devoting "only 40 words" to defence in a budget speech last autumn and not mentioning it at all in an update last month, the FT said.
"Britain's national security and safety is in peril," he is due to say, according to an excerpt reported by the FT and the BBC. "We are under-prepared. We are under-insured. We are under attack. We are not safe."
A government spokesperson said on Tuesday: "We are delivering on the Strategic Defence Review to meet the threats we face," adding that an investment plan was being finalised and would be published as soon as possible.
'CORROSIVE COMPLACENCY'
Robertson's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Starmer has blamed under-investment in the military on 14 years of rule by the rival Conservative Party, and has promised the largest sustained rise in defence spending since the Cold War, to reach 3% of national output in the next parliament.
The government has yet to publish a 10-year defence investment plan initially due before the end of last year, aimed at meeting the ambitions set out in the 2024 review co-written by Robertson. The review called for a shift towards drones, digital warfare and data-driven combat systems reflecting lessons drawn from the war in Ukraine.
Starmer said last week that the war in Iran must be a turning point for Britain, pledging to strengthen the economy and military to cope with a more "volatile and dangerous" world.
But Robertson will accuse Britain's political leadership of a "corrosive complacency" towards defence and describe decisions made by "non-military experts in the Treasury" as "vandalism".
"We cannot defend Britain with an ever-expanding welfare budget," he is expected to say.
He will say the security outlook has deteriorated sharply following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and heightened tensions in the Middle East, calling it one of the most dangerous periods in decades.
(Reporting by Sam TabahritiEditing by Elizabeth Piper and Peter Graff)
