UK must ‘do more and go faster’, minister tells LBC, as MPs warn Britain has 'no plan' for its own defence
Britain is “moving as fast as possible” to rebuild its war-fighting stockpiles, a defence minister has insisted, after MPs warned the UK still lacks a plan to defend itself from attack.
Listen to this article
Luke Pollard, the Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry, told LBC’s Nick Ferrari at Breakfast that the Government was pressing ahead with a major expansion of munitions production and opening new drone factories, saying ministers had “identified 13 sites across the United Kingdom for new munitions factories”.
Speaking as the Commons Defence Committee published a stark warning about Britain’s readiness for conflict, Mr Pollard said: “We’ve committed to build at least six of those factories using UK government money this Parliament. We hope that the private sector will step in to help build even more on top of that.
“It’s precisely because of measures like this that we’re helping to restock our stockpiles, because we’ve given much of our equipment to our friends in Ukraine. We need to learn the lessons from that war, and that means having a bigger magazine, a bigger stockpile to deter Russian aggression.”
The minister said the new sites would “create around 1,000 jobs, proving that defence is an engine for growth”, and insisted the steps were necessary to equip “the men and women in our fighting forces” with the missiles and artillery shells required to defeat aggression “if necessary”.
Read more: UK puts aircraft carrier under Nato control as ex-Navy chief warns Russia clash could turn nuclear
Pressed on the committee’s warnings that Britain was not ready to defend itself, Mr Pollard said he would not “precisely use the same language”, but accepted its broad conclusion.
“It broadly chimes with the defence review that we published a few months ago,” he said. “We live in a new era of threat. Our adversaries are increasingly working together and investing in their militaries. That’s why we are investing more in our defence industries, more in our Armed Forces.”
Read more: 'UK defence not responsibility of military alone', says Armed Forces chief on Remembrance Day eve
He added: “We do need to do more and we do need to go faster. So when the Defence Select Committee sets out that we need to do more, I agree with them.”
Mr Pollard defended the pace of delivery, insisting ministers were acting “as quickly as we possibly can”, while acknowledging that he was “an impatient so and so” who wanted “everything delivered faster”. He highlighted extra defence spending, the largest pay rise for armed forces personnel in 20 years, and the first increase in the size of the British Army since the 1980s, with a target force of 76,000 troops.
Alongside the munitions programme, he confirmed two new drone factories will open this week, in Plymouth and Swindon. One will be built with a German partner after an agreement signed only a year ago, which he described as “the type of pace that we need to see”.
His comments came as Defence Secretary John Healey prepared to use a speech in London to set out plans for a network of new “factories of the future” producing explosives, propellants and pyrotechnics, reviving high-volume energetics production in the UK for the first time in nearly 20 years.
At least 13 potential sites have been earmarked for development, including Grangemouth in Scotland, Teesside in north-east England and Milford Haven in Wales. Mr Healey will say the expansion marks a “fundamental shift from the failed approach of the past” and could generate at least 1,000 new jobs across Britain’s industrial regions.
“For too long our proud industrial heartlands saw jobs go away and not come back,” he will say. “This is a new era of threat, but the opportunity of this new era is a defence dividend from our record investment.”
The Government has already committed £1.5 billion of extra defence spending on munitions and energetics, with a pledge to build six new factories before the next election.
Mr Healey will also say that the forthcoming Budget will ensure “no return to the hollowed out and underfunded armed forces of the past”, as Chancellor Rachel Reeves prepares her fiscal plans.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer met German chancellor Friedrich Merz and French president Emmanuel Macron in Berlin ahead of the speech, with talks continuing over whether the UK will join a proposed €150 billion European defence fund. Reports suggest negotiations have been complicated by French demands that Britain contribute £5 billion to participate.
The Defence Committee’s report set out the scale of the challenge facing the Government.
“The UK lacks a plan for defending the homeland and overseas territories,” MPs warned, saying the public needed far more information about the nature of modern threats and the national effort required in a future conflict.
Committee chairman Tan Dhesi said: “Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, unrelenting disinformation campaigns, and repeated incursions into European airspace mean that we cannot afford to bury our heads in the sand.
“Government must be willing to grasp the nettle and prioritise homeland defence and resilience. Wars aren’t won just by generals but by the whole of the population getting behind the armed forces and playing our part.”
Mr Pollard, speaking to LBC, echoed the need for a “whole of society effort”, saying public backing for the armed forces should be visible “every single day of the year”.
He also stressed that ministers were modernising defence housing, tackling recruitment and retention problems, and confronting “toxic cultures” within parts of the forces that deter prospective recruits.
On growing tensions with China, he said the Government was taking “time to make a decision” on whether to allow a new Chinese embassy near the Tower of London, citing “complexities of the national security implications”.
A decision is due by 10 December.