Britain is ‘not safe’ and critically underprepared for war, warns former Nato chief

British people are “not safe” and describing the country as underprepared for war is an “understatement”, a former Nato chief has warned parliament.

Lord Robertson of Port Ellen gave a scathing assessment of the UK’s readiness for war following a year examining defence policy for the government’s Strategic Defence Review, released early last month.

“Over the years, we have allowed our forces and our defences to become hollowed out,” the former Nato secretary general told the House of Lords today (18 July).

“When we say in the report that we are ‘underprepared’, it is an understatement. We don’t have the ammunition, the training, the people, the spare parts, the logistics, and we don’t have the medical capacity [for] high intensity warfare.”