Keir Starmer's delay to Britain's defence upgrade scolded by Tobias Ellwood: 'Deeply irresponsible!'

Sir Keir Starmer has been criticised for his "deeply irresponsible" delay in bolstering Britain's defences, following a stark warning from General Sir Richard Barrons.

Speaking to GB News, Former Chair of the Defence Select Committee Tobias Ellwood hit out at the Prime Minister, warning the state of the nation's defences is "plain for us all to see".

In a fresh warning to Sir Keir, General Sir Richard Barrons, who helped author the strategic defence review, accused the Ministry of Defence of moving "backwards" since the document's publication last June.

Sir Richard cautioned that Britain's armed forces are currently limited to "dreaming of war preparations" and there will be "no money for new weapons until 2030".

Reacting to Sir Richard's warning, Mr Ellwood admitted that Sir Keir's reluctance to invest in Britain's defences is "baffling".

He told GB News: "It's a litany of problems that we're now coming to terms with.

"Our world is clearly getting more dangerous, more volatile, more unpredictable, and that danger was spelled out in really clear terms in last year's defence review, showing how conflict in various forms is heading our way as global order deteriorates."

Mr Ellwood accused the Prime Minister of being "irresponsible" when it comes to defence.

He fumed: "It's not just baffling but deeply irresponsible that this government is delaying any serious upgrade to our defence posture.

"General Sir Richard Barrons was the author of that defence review, along with Lord Robertson and Fiona Hill. All three have now broken ranks and gone public, expressing real concerns about the state of the UK defence and as global security deteriorates. It's really plain to see for all of us."

Recalling Sir Keir's delay in sending vessels to the Mediterranean amid the US-Iran war, the former defence minister told GB News that such delays will "have an impact" on the British industry.

He said: "We couldn't deploy ships recently to the Mediterranean, there's delays in buying the full fleet of F-35s and there's a mess of a programme to upgrade our land warfare assets to the Challenger and Ajax for example.

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"And more widely, how slow we are to grasp the impact of grey zone and drone warfare and the world of uncrude and autonomous weapons. So this delay is actually having knock on impact to the British industry."

Mr Ellwood expressed his "biggest concern" for the nation amid rising tensions in the Middle East.

He admitted: "We're seeing UK defence companies look go to overseas for contracts, France, Germany are certainly spending more than we are, that's where those businesses are going.

"And then on top of that, of course, we've got America's clear decision to disengage from European security. Our adversaries are looking at this and now exploiting our weaknesses.

"And my biggest concern is that we're going to find out the hard way just how vulnerable we are when we experience a major attack, for example, like a drone strike on Portsmouth or a massive sabotage attack on our undersea cables. Only then will we appreciate that we need to be spending more on defence."

Asked by host Miriam Cates why he believes the UK is being "slower than Nato allies" in bolstering our defence, Mr Ellwood argued that the Government has not been "honest" with the British public.

He told GB News: "I think the real answer to that is that we have not been honest with the general public just how clear those threats are that are coming over the hill.

"Keir Starmer was saying about the threats that we face - they are much more complicated than he suggests. It isn't just Iran, there is now an asymmetric warfare against us that Russia is promoting. We have cyber attacks on the UK's economy occurring almost every single day.

"Russia is already in a grey zone war with us and we're in denial about that. We need to recognise and spell out to the British people just how dangerous the world is."