Hegseth right to mock Royal Navy, says ex-army chief as he backs claims over military underfunding – UK politics live

Richard Barrons backs George Robertson and says UK forces ‘too small and undernourished for the world that we now live in’Kemi Badenoch has told Radio 5 Live that she “100% agrees” with what George Robertson is saying, as quoted in the FT, about Britain being unable to defend itself properly with an “ever-expanding wefare budget”. (See 8.58am.) Asked about his speech in an interview this morning, she said:We used to spend one in every seven pounds on welfare. Now it’s one in every three pounds and a lot of that money has basically been swapped for defence.The world is not as peaceful as it used to be. The peace dividend that existed after the fall of the Berlin Wall is gone, we need to spend more money on defence.We are delivering on the strategic defence review to meet the threats we face.It is backed by the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War, with a total of over £270bn being invested across this parliament. Continue reading...