Ex-defence ministers ‘wrong’ to warn UK unprepared for war, Oliver Dowden claims

Two former defence ministers are wrong to say the UK is unprepared for the possibility of war, Oliver Dowden has said.

Outgoing defence minister James Heappey called on ministers to do more to prepare for conflict just weeks after resigning his MoD post, warning the UK has failed to prepare for war as a “whole-nation endeavour”.

His former boss, Ben Wallace, echoed his sentiments, suggesting some in Government are “just hoping” threats to the UK “will go away”.

Asked about the warnings, Deputy Prime Minister Mr Dowden said: “I think they are wrong.”

He told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg he does however agree the UK is facing “rising threats” from across the globe.

He added: “We are taking action across the board. We have set up a national cybersecurity centre in respect of cyber. I now take dozens of decisions daily about investment to protect our economic security.

“This world is going to get more dangerous as time goes on. We see a combination of hostile states, not least Russia, Iran, North Korea and China.

“We need to be taking action across those areas. Of course there is always more to do, but I believe we are making good progress against rising threats.”

Writing in the Telegraph newspaper, Mr Heappey said the UK is behind allies who have taken steps to reinforce citizens’ preparedness for war.

He gave the example of Sweden, where the government has handed out a booklet explaining what to do in a time of war, including which emergency food provisions to store.

Mr Heappey wrote: “It’s a stark reminder that war is a whole-nation endeavour and, to be frank, in the UK we’re a very long way behind.”

The former soldier, who resigned as a minister at the end of March, said not enough figures within Government are considering things like how Britain would feed itself during a war, or how public services would work.

He pointed to a “whole of Government exercise” which Mr Wallace had “pushed hard for” while serving as defence secretary, aimed at getting ministers and officials into a war bunker to see what their working environment would be.

“In the end, rather depressingly, it was just defence ministers, senior military officers and MoD officials that participated,” Mr Heappey wrote.

Conservative former defence secretary Mr Wallace told the Telegraph: “The growing instability and insecurity directed at Britain and her allies means that the whole of society needs to make a step change towards recognising that our core duty is to think about our defence and our resilience.

“It’s how we used to think during the Cold War, and everyone from local government to the MoD played their part.”

While Mr Wallace claimed the MoD has made such a change, he added “there are too many people in Government and society relying on just hoping everything will go away”.

The intervention from the two long-serving defence ministers came as Rishi Sunak faces pressure to increase defence spending.

Conservative MPs have urged the Prime Minister to raise this to 2.5% of gross domestic product (GDP).

Jens Stoltenberg, the head of Nato, meanwhile claimed that the West’s enemies are becoming increasingly aligned.

The alliance chief warned in a BBC interview of growing links between Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.

A Government spokesman told the Telegraph an extra £24 billion will be invested in the armed forces between 2020 and 2025, which he described as the largest sustained investment since the Cold War.