February 4, 2025 - 1:15pm

Yesterday in Brussels, Keir Starmer urged European leaders to “shoulder more of the burden” on defence spending as the Ukraine war drags on. One can only admire the brass neck of the man, because Britain is in no position to lecture its allies on the state of their militaries.

Soon after Labour’s election victory, Chancellor Rachel Reeves scrapped the previous government’s defence spending plans, which represented a guaranteed increase of about £20 billion in real terms over the life of this parliament. Her autumn Budget pledged a one-time increase to the department’s coffers of £2.9 billion, a mere 15% of the lost cash.

Having spent that money buying off the unions, Labour now has no timetable for when it will get around to hitting its own defence spending commitment. It’s hard to see how it could possibly do so before the next election: Reeves claims to have already set out her tax and spending plans for the entire parliament, and Baroness Casey’s review of social care — and all its doubtless expensive commitments — is due in 2028.

Giving £3 billion a year to Ukraine might provide Starmer with some cover in Brussels, but not much. Any European government paying attention will know about the decaying state of Britain’s once-vaunted Armed Forces. The country no longer has even a single deployable division, while the majority of the Royal Navy’s much-reduced fleet is out of commission for maintenance and repairs.

Since the end of the Cold War, successive governments have cut defence budgets, but they have never had the courage to openly acknowledge the consequences for British military power. Instead of concentrating lower spending on doing some things well, we spread it across too many capabilities and perform most of them poorly.

But even that “strategy” is now running out of road. In November Defence Secretary John Healey announced that the Government was looking to sell both of the Royal Navy’s Landing Platform Docks (LPDs), HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark.

This is an extraordinary state of affairs. LPDs are amphibious assault ships that deploy land forces, and selling both vessels will remove the Royal Navy’s entire capacity. Historically, Britain has justified a relatively small army on the basis of an elite, globally-deployable expeditionary force backed up by the Navy. That case falls to pieces if the Navy can’t put them ashore.

It gets worse. While many British warships, vehicles, and other equipment are operating beyond their proper service life thanks to abject procurement processes, Albion and Bulwark still have a decade of good service life remaining.

So, what’s the problem? According to Navy Lookout, it’s a combination of the cost of repairs — the Ministry of Defence says decommissioning will “save £9 million a year in maintenance costs” — and, unbelievably, the Navy’s inability to recruit the 2,000 or so sailors it would take to man the ships.

But this attitude is the epitome of penny-wise, pound-foolish. Albion and Bulwark, plus their landing craft, cost about £1.6 billion in today’s money when they were originally commissioned. Should a future government decide we do need LPDs after all, recommissioning that capability from scratch would surely cost vastly more again.

Worst of all, the Daily Mail reported a week ago that ministers may be preparing to sell both ships to Brazil for just £20 million. Not only is that an abysmal return on investment for the taxpayer, but it would give the Marinha do Brasil greater marine assault capabilities than the Royal Navy, which isn’t great for the balance of power in the South Atlantic, historically a British priority.

If the UK is to maintain any strategic credibility in an increasingly dangerous 21st century, ministers have to face facts. Britain must choose between an effective army focused on Europe or a competitive navy. If we want either, let alone both, we have to make cuts to protect defence spending. Starmer should stop worrying about the speck in his European neighbours’ eyes, and pay far more attention to the plank in his own.


Henry Hill is Deputy Editor of ConservativeHome.

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