UK military ‘not ready to fight’ – defense secretary

The UK military is unprepared to fight in a major conflict and would not be able to deter the enemy if a war breaks out now, British Defense Secretary John Healey has acknowledged.

The British army, navy and air force have been “hollowed out” and “underfunded” during the 14 years of the Conservative Party’s rule, Healey said in his appearance on Politico's Power Play podcast on Thursday.

When the UK Labour Party came to power in July, “we expected things to be in a poor state – but the state of the finances, the state of the forces, was far worse than we thought,” he added.

"The UK, in keeping with many other nations, has essentially become very skilled and ready to conduct military operations. What we have not been ready to do is to fight. Unless we are ready to fight, we are not in shape to deter,” the defense secretary stressed.

"This is at the heart of the NATO thinking. We have got to not just be capable of defending our NATO nations, but more importantly we have got to be more effective in the deterrence we provide against any future aggression,” he added.

Britain and other members of the US-led military bloc need to “innovate” and “take the new technologies and some of the lessons from Ukraine and make what we do more lethal and therefore a stronger deterrence,” Healey said.

When asked to comment on the defense secretary’s statement, a spokesman for the Labour government insisted that “this Government will always do what is required to defend the country. The UK’s Armed Forces are amongst the best in the world and offer a 24/7 defense of the UK, operating alongside our allies and partners to prepare for any event.”

“The Strategic Defense Review [which was launched in July] will look at the threats we face and the capabilities we need so that our Armed Forces are better ready to fight, more integrated and more innovative,” he said.

On Thursday, The Telegraph reported, citing a senior defense source, that the new UK budget, which will be announced next week, will “almost certainly” not provide more money to the Defense Ministry.

According to the government’s figures, Britain’s army, navy, and air force have entered 2024 with just over 138,000 active-duty personnel, the lowest number since the end of the Napoleonic wars. The army alone had seen its headcount shrink from more than 100,000 in 2010 to 75,110 by the start of this year.