Labour MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi raised concerns about the state of the UK’s security, and claimed Britain was ‘underprepared’ amid growing danger from Russia and religious extremists
The public are not aware of the scale of threat the country faces, the chair of the Defence Select Committee has warned.
Labour MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi raised concerns about the state of the UK’s security, and claimed Britain was “underprepared” amid growing danger from Russia and religious extremists.
Speaking to the Sunday Mirror, the senior MP called for an increase in defence spending, and raised concerns “a lot of jobs” in the sector were now at risk.
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He said: “I think a lot of people might not appreciate the propensity and scale of the increased threats that we face, particularly in the grey zone and the cyber domain. That is why I want to make sure the Government is committed to a national conversation about defence, to make the British public more aware of the threat that we face.
“That national conversation is not happening, apart from a few speeches by the Defence Secretary or the Prime Minister. The threats that we face from a multitude of directions. Russia, unfortunately, is the source of a lot of attacks, especially via social media.
“We’ve also recently seen the case of a British politician being bribed through that corruption and advocating on behalf of the Russian state, with Nathan Gill, the Reform politician. But we’re also seeing, whether it’s lone actors, religious radicalism, extremism, so we need as a nation to be fully prepared. At the moment we’re under prepared and under-resourced.”
President Putin’s government has already been accused of previously trying to kill Mr Navalny in 2020 using a Novichok nerve agent, the same chemical weapon that Russia is believed to have used in Salisbury for the failed attempt to kill former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in 2018.
Earlier this week the retired heads of the Army and Navy and an ex-MI6 boss warned the Prime Minister that the Armed Forces had been “hollowed out by years of chronic underfunding”. The senior MP welcomed the commitment to 2.5 % spending of GDP on Defence by next year, but warned ministers that was not enough to “meet the moment”.
He explained: “It’s great that the Government is saying that we’ve got the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War but they need to chart out a way to 3%in this parliament, not to kick the can down the road. That comes with publishing the Defence Investment Plan, that was promised last year, by the Autumn.
“That is crucial to send a clear demand signal to the British defence industrial base as well as sending a clear signal to our allies and indeed our adversaries as well that we’re serious about defence. Defence as a whole has been hollowed out for well over a decade now that we’ve got successive governments that have reduced our spending on defence and indeed some refer to it as a peace dividend. Unfortunately geopolitics dictates that we do need to find a way to keep our country safe and secure.”
Responding, a Government spokesperson said: “The UK is the third-highest defence spender of all NATO nations, and we are a leader in the Alliance – from committing our nuclear deterrent to NATO to recently doubling the number of personnel to be deployed for Arctic and High North security.
“We are delivering the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War, hitting 2.6% of GDP from 2027, and the UK defence budget will total £270 billion across this Parliament alone. The UK has also made the historic pledge to hit 5% of GDP spend on national security, with a target date of 2035. With our allies we are ready to deter together and fight together and we welcome the increased spending on defence across NATO.”