Britain’s armed forces are so depleted that the country is not ready to fend off an invasion, the defence secretary has warned. In his most damning assessment yet of the state of the UK’s defence capability, John Healey said the military could conduct “operations”, but would be unable to stop an enemy from invading.
As Labour increasingly seeks to paint a dire inheritance it was left by the Conservatives, Mr Healey said: “The UK, in keeping with many other nations, has essentially become very skilled and ready to conduct military operations. What we’ve not been ready to do is to fight. Unless we are ready to fight we are not in shape to deter.” He told Politico’s Power Play podcast that the state of the armed forces when he became defence secretary in July was “far worse with far deeper problems than we expected”.
Amid mounting frustration at the government’s delays in setting a timeline for when defence spending will reach 2 per cent of Britain’s GDP, Mr Healey also conceded that it is “taking [the government] a while to get going”.
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