Britain is ‘sleepwalking into war’ former Defence Minister says as RAF obsesses over vegan uniforms
Former defence minister Tobias Ellwood has told LBC the UK is facing its most perilous security outlook since 1945, yet the RAF is distracted by “vegan uniforms” instead of urgent defence priorities.
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Speaking to LBC’s Nick Ferrari at Breakfast, the ex-Conservative MP said the armed forces are being hollowed out while global threats mount.
“We’ve entered a new era of insecurity and there’s an urgency to spend more money on defence,” he said. “To learn that there is a corner of the RAF pouring effort into designing and procuring vegan uniforms and hats that aren’t made of wool really suggests we’re not focusing on the right priorities.”
Mr Ellwood explained how reduced the current RAF is compared to the end of the Cold War. “We had 36 fast jet squadrons. We’re down to just six today. We scrapped key platforms like the Hercules. We have no viable air defence over UK skies to protect us from drones. And our space budget, which is where the next big conflict will start, has just been cut.”
He added that Western security was being undermined by political drift in Washington, citing Donald Trump’s warning that the US could pull out of the United Nations. “If the UN goes away, there goes our global order. And yet here we have the RAF focusing on fabrics. Let’s wake up.”
Read more: Royal Navy shadows Russian ships in English Channel amid escalating European security tensions
Mr Ellwood warned the world was entering a perilous period reminiscent of the late 1930s. “It is 1938 again. The League of Nations was not able to hold errant nations to account, and we’re seeing the same restlessness now. A new alliance is forming, redrawing the world map, and we’re in denial.”
He argued warned of looming “grey zone” threats such as energy security and the race for quantum computing. “There will be a moment, an event, which will then wake everybody up and say, why haven’t we spent more?”
On Russia’s recent provocations, Ellwood accused Moscow of probing Nato defences. “They are testing the West. Nato's protocols are still based on peacetime doctrine."
"Those pilots that flew into Nato airspace switched off their transponders, weren’t responding to radio messages, and we should have had in seconds an ability to respond. Instead, RAF pilots flying from the UK arrived 30 minutes late and of course it had all disappeared. Russia is moving into a far more aggressive stance and we’re still in denial.”
His warning comes after US fighter jets intercepted four Russian aircraft near Alaska, the third such incident in a month. In Europe, the Royal Navy has shadowed Russian warships in the Channel, while Poland and Estonia have reported drone and fighter incursions.
“The world is getting more dangerous, not less,” Ellwood said. “Our adversaries are upping their game. We should be upping ours.”