Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Independent TV

Showing now | News

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

01:23

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.”

Up next

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in