Starmer's defence review ignores reality: the UK’s military is too small to keep the nation safe, writes Mike Martin MP

Today, the long-awaited Strategic Defence Review has been published by the Government, setting out the path for the British armed forces over the next decade. In summary: lots of high-tech buzz words, but the military is too small to keep the UK safe in a dangerous world.

Not only has the Government neglected to commit to an increase in the size of the force this Parliament, or at the very least reverse the Conservative government’s cuts to the Army, it seems to have learnt nothing from the war in Ukraine – that the size of your force matters, and is the most important determinant in whether a military is able to fight and win wars. This is true whether it is on land, at sea, or in the air.

If you look at the trenches that Ukrainian soldiers are digging in the mud in Eastern Ukraine, they’re exactly the same design as the trenches in the First World War. The centrepiece of a land force has always been and will continue to be the infantry, and then you build tanks, artillery, and (now) drones around that. The infantry has not been as small as it is now since the 1790s.

At sea, the Royal Navy is a shadow of its former self, barely able to put 5 ships of the line to sea at any one time. In the air? If we had to fight tonight, one expert recently told the Defence Select Committee that we could scratch together 30 planes.

At this size, the UK military is unable to defend the UK. And whilst the government has announced more ships and submarines, these will hit the seas well into the next decade, rather than now, when they are needed.

Instead, we get announcements of a ‘Cyber Command’, £1 billion for technology to speed up decisions on the battlefield and a few mini autonomous submersibles for good measure. Those are all, broadly, good things, but without an appropriately sized force they mean nothing.

Yet, despite increasing defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, and using stark and emotive language—depictions of tanks going through our streets—to describe the very real and imminent threat that Russia poses to Britain and Europe, the Government isn’t seizing the moment.

The British military can have all the technology in the world, but it won’t be able to keep the UK safe without a sufficiently big force – more ground units, more ships, and more aircraft, all enhanced with layers of drones operating around them.

If governments must choose between larger forces with technology that is ‘good enough’, and high-tech forces that are much smaller, they should always choose larger forces with tech that is ‘good enough’ if they want to win wars – this is the lesson from Ukraine.

This is why the Liberal Democrats are campaigning to reverse the Conservative Government’s cuts to the army with an ambition of increasing regular troop numbers back to over 100,000. We are also calling on the government to convene cross-party talks on how we get to 3% of GDP spend on Defence ASAP, rather than by 2034 – which is what the Government’s proposal is.

Defence spending must reach 3% of GDP as a minimum if we want to keep our country safe. All three major parties must come to the table to agree on a way to pay for it. Not doing so is a dereliction of duty.

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Mike Martin is the MP for Tunbridge Wells.

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