Britain’s opposition leader Kemi Badenoch has accused Andy Burnham’s government of “fiddling” while Europe confronts a growing Russian threat, as former military chiefs warned that the UK’s armed forces are in a “quite parlous state” and governments across the continent accelerate preparations for a potential wider conflict.
Badenoch told The Telegraph that the government needed to abandon what she described as an outdated assumption that Europe was living through a period of lasting peace.
“Our Government is fiddling while Europe is at risk of burning. In France and Poland, leaders are taking action now against the growing Russian threat.
“What is our Government doing? Has anyone heard from Wes Streeting, the former head of the National Union of Students, who has rocked up as Defence Secretary?”
Read more related news:
Europe already in a form of ‘World War III’ as Burnham faces pressure to strengthen defences
Drone incidents surge at UK military sites as Kremlin warns British facilities are ‘legitimate targets’
Russia prepares for ‘stealth’ mobilisation as Europe readies for hybrid attacks on NATO
Europe braces for war as hospitals prepare for 1,000 wounded NATO troops a day
She added: “We have to stop pretending that we are living in a carefree end of history when Russia is testing our resolve week after week. It’s time to get serious.”
The Conservative leader also attacked Burnham over his insistence that welfare spending should not be cut to finance additional military expenditure, warning that the message would be “heard loud and clear in Moscow as well as Manchester”.
The government has sought to draw a distinction between protecting the welfare state and reducing the benefits bill, with Downing Street insisting Burnham remains committed to both strengthening the armed forces and bringing down welfare spending, but not through “crude cuts”.
The dispute comes as European governments are increasingly planning for the possibility of a prolonged confrontation with Russia that could extend well beyond conventional battlefield operations.
Admiral Lord West, former First Sea Lord and security minister under Gordon Brown, said Britain’s military was in “quite a parlous state”.
“In many ways, one could argue we are already at war. We are certainly in the grey zone – whether it’s cyber attacks, drones getting near the edge of somewhere or threats to underwater cables,” Lord West said.
Lord Dannatt, former chief of the general staff, has called on Chancellor John Healey to provide a clear route towards spending 3.5 per cent of GDP on defence at the forthcoming Budget.
“My bottom line is that Andy Burnham, and regretfully I would now add John Healey, are playing fast and loose with the nation’s security,” he said.
The UK has committed to raising defence spending to 3.5 per cent of national income by 2035 under its Nato pledge. But current plans would take expenditure only to 2.7 per cent by 2027-28, leaving ministers under mounting pressure to explain how the remaining increase will be funded.
Badenoch has pledged to reach 3 per cent by 2030, proposing to raise £4bn by capping housing benefit. Burnham has warned that the measure could result in unprecedented levels of homelessness. The Conservatives have rejected that assessment, arguing that claimants would instead need to “move somewhere cheaper.”
The government has defended its response to Russia, pointing to higher defence spending, expulsions of intelligence officers, sanctions against the GRU and measures targeting illicit finance.
A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “These threats from Russia are yet another attempt to distract from their barbaric invasion of Ukraine.
“We have been clear that Russia’s hybrid attacks are egregious and unacceptable. That’s why we have taken tough action to respond to Russia’s intensifying hostile activity against our continent – increasing defence spending, expelling intelligence officers, sanctioning the GRU, cracking down on illicit finance networks, and ensuring Russia’s criminal proxies are disrupted and brought to justice.
“The UK is united with our allies on the importance of defending ourselves, and Russia’s aggression will not deter us from supporting Ukraine.”
Across Europe, however, governments are increasingly examining not only how their armed forces would fight a major conflict, but whether their civilian systems could absorb the consequences.
Germany is reviewing the capacity of its military and civilian healthcare systems to deal with a large-scale conflict involving Nato forces. Leaked planning documents reported by the Mirror suggest German military planners have considered scenarios in which as many as 1,000 wounded soldiers could arrive in the country each day during a major war.
France has convened an unusual cross-party security briefing, while Britain has been updating Cold War-era contingency plans for maintaining the functioning of the country during a major conflict.
The preparations are not, in themselves, evidence that European governments believe a wider war with Russia is imminent. Instead, they reflect a fundamental shift in defence planning towards a model of sustained confrontation in which conventional military operations could coincide with cyber attacks, sabotage, drone strikes and disruption to critical infrastructure.
That represents a significant change in the assumptions that shaped European security policy after the Cold War.
For decades, governments largely planned for conflicts occurring elsewhere while treating their own civilian infrastructure as insulated from major military disruption.
The return of large-scale war to Europe has altered that calculation.
The question now confronting governments is not simply whether Nato could fight a major war, but whether hospitals, energy systems, communications networks, governments and other critical infrastructure could continue operating while it did.
For Britain, the increasingly urgent debate over defence spending is therefore becoming inseparable from a broader question of national resilience — and whether the country’s military ambitions are matched by the resources needed to sustain them.
Leave a Comment