Lord Dannatt has warned that the United Kingdom will be “in peril” if the government does not increase funding for the nation’s “woefully” underfunded military.
Rishi Sunak’s promise of an additional £5 billion for the armed forces and his vow to increase the military budget to 2.5% of GDP over the long term was deemed acceptable by the previous head of the general staff.
Nevertheless, Lord Dannatt, who served as Army chief from 2006 to 2009, stated that due to defense expenditure priorities, the United Kingdom’s ground forces continue to be underfunded.
He stated that there are “lessons from history” to be learned by nations that do not maintain adequate military forces.
Lord Dannatt told Times Radio, in response to the PM’s fresh funding announcement, “That’s OK as far as it goes. However, and this is a major but, with a ground war in Europe, our land forces, and our army, are currently grossly underfunded and underinvested. Everyone is aware of this. For a considerable amount of time, the army will have the lowest expenditure priority.
“Therefore, a pledge to increase defense spending to 2.5% of GDP is commendable, but my question is when and on what will those additional funds be spent?” “As a former head of the military, I believe we should spend more on our armed forces, and history teaches us that if we don’t, we’re in danger.”