Military leaders warn that UK appears “feeble” on world stage

The four men, Admiral Sir Nigel Essenhigh, Admiral Lord Boyce, Field Marshal Lord Walker and Air Chief Marshal Sir Peter Squire, claim that Britain has been rendered “feeble” against threats from around the world and urge the government to not make further cuts to military spending.

In the article, Sir Nigel said: “If the outcome of the [defence] review is a further reduction in military expenditure and not a commitment to a sustained increase, then the Government will be neglecting its prime and overriding duty, the defence of the nation, by failing to halt the progressive decline of British military capability into penny packet numbers.”

The former defence chiefs’ concerns are based on the UK’s failure to act in Iraq, Syria and Russia. They warn that “feeble responses” to these threats comes after continued conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have left the public with little appetite for further military intervention abroad and compare the current situation to Britain’s unwillingness to arm itself in the 1930’s before the second world war until it was almost too late.

Sir Peter Squire said: “Russia must now be the number one and major threat. What is going on in Eastern Europe, in Ukraine and so forth, could spill over into a major conflict. We ought to be very conscious of that. Of course, there are other threats around the world, such as Islamic State [Isil], which we have got to come to terms with. But at the end of the day, the one that could destroy this country is Russia.”

Lord Boyce added: “Putin is behaving in a very aggressive and expansionist way and the Government does not seem to take it seriously because it is inconvenient to have to do something about it. When facing the threat from Hitler in the 1930s, we woke up to it too late and so we were on the back foot from the start.”

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