Defence sector 'waits with baited breath' ahead of Autumn Budget, says former Major General
“The industry is waiting to see who the winners and losers are"
A leading defence industry figure has urged the government to speed up plans to boost military spending, warning that the threat from Russia is now "fairly adjacent" to the UK.
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Former Major General Neil Sexton told LBC that the UK could no longer afford to delay investment in defence pointing to a series of Russian provocations across Europe - including drone incursions into NATO airspace and repeated hostile actions in the North Sea.
“Well, we are about 11 hours’ drive away from the front line in Ukraine here in the UK, so the threat’s fairly adjacent,” he said.
He said the defence sector was “waiting with bated breath” to see which areas of the military budget will benefit most.
“The industry is waiting to see who the winners and losers are,” he added.
“Because there will be choices - difficult choices. But that’s important.”
This comes as two Russian warships were intercepted in the English Channel by the Royal Navy, less than a week after a Moscow spy ship was detected in British waters.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said HMS Severn intercepted a corvette and a tanker, named RFN Stoikiy and Yelnya respectively, as they sailed west through the Dover Strait in the past fortnight.
Russian spy ship Yantar was spotted off the coast of Scotland last week and shone its lasers at RAF pilots who flew overhead to surveil it.
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In Denmark, British counter-drone experts were deployed earlier this year to investigate similar suspicious activity.
Nineteen crossed into Poland in September; Russian jets violated Estonian airspace days later; and Moldova’s elections were targeted in what Healey described as a “concerted campaign” of subversion.
Mr Sexton said the government’s planned increase in defence spending, to meet NATO partners, over the next decade was welcome, but said industry leaders were keen to see funding come through sooner.
He added: "What we’ve seen is the way that Russia’s behaved very recklessly with its drone flights into a NATO member’s airspace - you don’t have 19 drone incursions accidentally. That’s not a coincidence."
Transport secretary Heidi Alexander told LBC that "shifting sands" meant the Chancellor faced tough choices on the Autumn Budget.
But she insisted Rachel Reeves would be "laser focused" on making sure the Budget "not only cuts the cost of living but is also cutting national debt".
Questions remain where the plan for defence spending stands as rumours swirl about income tax, a new 'mansion tax' and welfare reform.
Mr Sexon added that ministers faced difficult decisions on where to direct new funding when the Ministry of Defence sets out its updated investment plan later this year.
“Of course, there’s no such thing as government money - it’s all taxpayers’ money, and there have to be priorities,” he said.
“The government will make difficult decisions inside the MoD. We heard that by the autumn we’re going to see exactly where they’re going to invest that defence spending for the next year or two.”
This comes as the former head of the British Army has said Britain is too focused on welfare spending rather than funding defence despite the threat posed by Russia, as he claimed Nato is not sufficiently backing Ukraine.
Lord Houghton of Richmond, who served as chief of defence staff between 2013 and 2016, called on the Government to do more as he said decision-making still resembled “peacetime planning”.
He described the financial picture for the armed forces as “dire” and added he believed “uncomfortable announcements” on funding lie ahead.
The crossbench peer said that without proper backing for Ukraine it could lead to a ceasefire that would humiliate the country and embarrass western governments while leaving Russia bullish.
Speaking in a debate in the House of Lords on the war in Ukraine, in October, Lord Houghton said: “(Vladimir Putin) will see Britain as America's proxy.
"He will have a fully mobilised set of armed forces, an untouched suite of strategic capabilities, a fully mobilised war economy and the window of opportunity to act whilst Nato, certainly the UK, at the moment, still prioritises welfare benefits over national security.”