UK Defence Budget Crisis: Is Britain Spending Enough to Stay Secure? __An Interview With Roger Cottrell

Britain faces growing pressure to strengthen its defence capabilities amid rising global tensions, the war in Ukraine and changing security priorities. But how much should the UK spend on defence, and where should that money come from? Former British Army military, intelligence and media analyst Dr. Roger Cottrell discusses Britain’s defence budget, NATO, modern military capabilities and the difficult balance between national security and public services.

1-Is the UK defence budget sufficient to protect Britain against the growing security threats it faces today?

It probably isn’t, but it’s hard to assess how much the budget should be because at the moment we’re committed to NATO, we’re committed to an alliance to the United States to which I’m opposed, we’re committed to getting involved in, for example, supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza, which we should not be involved in. And Trump wants to drag us into his imperialist, illegal imperialist war against Iran.

So you need to take that out of the equation and any other kind of imperialist kind of like adventures that he’s got up his sleeve before you assess what our defence budget really should be. And on top of that, I mean, the actual caveat to that is always going to be that increased defence funding has to come from taxation of the wealthy. It can’t come from a tax on public services.

2-How serious is the current crisis in British defence spending, and what are the main pressures facing the UK military?

Well, I dispute the term crisis. I don’t think that our defense industry or our defense forces are in crisis. I do think we may be— that we need a more robust defense force for Britain and for Europe. But again, that needs to be decoupled from pouring our resources into NATO, supporting imperialist war crimes.

Defense means what it says on the tin, the defense of British and European democracy from external threat, not waging wars in the Persian Gulf or anywhere else.

3-How have the war in Ukraine and rising global tensions changed Britain’s defence priorities and the UK defence budget?

Well, what you’ve got to remember there is that Ukraine really— America has tied Ukraine’s hands behind its back since the conflict started. If, for example, Trump’s America had given Ukraine the kind of resources, things like the Iron— things like Patriot defense systems, for example, that it’s given quite freely to Saudi Arabia and to the United Arab Emirates, I suspect that the war in Ukraine would be over by now.

So really, Trump’s support for Ukraine and indeed for European defense has always been smoke and mirrors. And the best way we could concentrate on defending our democracy, either from Putin or Trump, is to concentrate our defense on our defense and not start getting involved in imperialist conflicts, whether in the Persian Gulf or anywhere else.

4-Is Britain investing enough in modern military capabilities, including drones, cyber warfare, artificial intelligence and advanced weapons systems?

Well, probably not, but let’s actually once again go back to the core question, which is, what is this defense? What are these things for? If they’re for defending Europe, or a possible legitimate humanitarian intervention somewhere, I don’t know, Sudan, Congo, DR, whatever, then you need the proper kit, the proper equipment to engage in that.

If you’re talking about having these resources once again to go and support the Zionists, to go and help America wage its illegal war against Iran, or its wars for like resources, its attacks on people like Venezuela, Cuba, etc., etc., then we shouldn’t even be entertaining that as part of our defense needs.

5-How could increased UK defence spending affect other areas of government spending, particularly at a time of economic pressure?

Well, this is, for me as a socialist, this is the most important issue. That while I’m no pacifist, and I think that Britain and Europe do need the resources to defend themselves, and we do need a defense budget, we may even have to spend more money on defense.

This cannot be at the expense of public services, the need for social housing, the National Health Service, the welfare state. Because what are we defending if we’re not defending those things? To actually pay for those resources better than we already have done and to pay for adequate defense means taxing the wealthy.

Bear in mind, Britain is supposed to be the 5th richest country in the world, and yet that wealth is concentrated with very few people. and we see nothing of it. So before we talk about making cuts to, to housing or making cuts to, to welfare to pay for defense, let’s start taxing the wealthy and make them pay their way.

6-Looking ahead, what level of UK defence budget does Britain need to maintain its security and remain a credible military power?

Well, I actually can’t give a straight answer to that, and the reason being that because we’re tied up with NATO and the United States, the argument over our, you know, our realistic defense budget and being a credible military power is tied in with the whole issue, the can of worms of imperialist aggression, which it shouldn’t be. We do need a common European defense pact, in my view.

We need a common European standing army. But exactly how much that would cost in terms of taking Europe as a whole, uh, can’t really— we can’t really assess that until you take America and its imperialist wars out of the equation.

Now, apart from taxing the wealthy to pay for this, I mean, one way that we could save an awful lot of money in terms of having a common European defense pact would be to nationalize our arms industries. Our private arms companies have been involved in genocide and wars of imperialist aggression and fomenting conflicts not only in the Middle East but in Africa as well for far too long.

I mean, you’ve just got to look at the fact that British arms are being used by the UAE in the genocide in Sudan, and who knows what Tony Blair’s up to in relation to Rwanda and M23 guerrillas in Congo-DR.