The UK is “really unprepared” to battle a warfare and has been dwelling on a “mirage” of army power that was stunning to find, interviews with nearly each defence secretary for the reason that finish of the Chilly Warfare have revealed.
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This decades-long saga, spanning a number of Labour, Conservative and coalition governments, consists of heated rows between the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Treasury, threats to resign, and dire warnings of weak point.
It additionally exposes a failure by the army and civil service to spend Britain’s still-significant defence funds successfully, additional compounding the erosion of combating energy.
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4:35
The Wargame: Behind the scenes
‘Russia knew’ about UK’s weaknesses
Now, with the menace from Russia returning, there’s a concern the UK has been left to bluff about its potential to reply, quite than pivot decisively again to a warfare footing.
“We’ve been living on a sort of mirage for so long,” says Sir Ben Wallace, a Conservative defence secretary from 2019 till 2023.
“So long as Trooping the Color was taking place, and the Crimson Arrows flew, and prime ministers might pose at NATO, all the things was wonderful.
“But it wasn’t fine. And the people who knew it wasn’t fine were actually the Americans, but also the Russians.”
Not sufficient troops, medics, or ammo
Lord George Robertson, a Labour defence secretary from 1997 to 1999 and the lead creator of a serious defence evaluation this yr, says when he most lately “lifted the bonnet” to have a look at the state of the Military, Royal Navy and Royal Air Drive, he discovered “we were really unprepared”.
“We don’t have enough ammunition, we don’t have enough logistics, we don’t have enough trained soldiers, the training is not right, and we don’t have enough medics to take the casualties that would be involved in a full-scale war.”
Requested if the state of affairs was worse than he had imagined, Lord Robertson says: “Much worse.”
Picture:
Robertson meets the PM after final yr’s election. Pic: Reuters
‘I used to be shocked,’ says ex-defence secretary
Sir Gavin Williamson, a former Conservative defence secretary, says he too had been “quite shocked as to how thin things were” when he was in cost on the MoD between 2017 and 2019.
“There was this sort of sense of: ‘Oh, the MoD is always good for a billion [pounds] from Treasury – you can always take a billion out of the MoD and nothing will really change.’
“And possibly that had been the case previously, however the cabinets had been actually naked.
“You were just taking the cupboards.”
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0:52
Ben Wallace on position as PM in ‘The Wargame’
However Lord Philip Hammond, a Conservative defence secretary from 2011 to 2014 and chancellor from 2016 till 2019, seems much less sympathetic to the cries for elevated money.
“Gavin Williamson came in [to the Ministry of Defence], the military polished up their bleeding stumps as best they could and convinced him that the UK’s defence capability was about to collapse,” he says.
“He came scuttling across the road to Downing Street to say, I need billions of pounds more money… To be honest, I didn’t think that he had sufficiently interrogated the military begging bowls that had been presented to him.”
Picture:
Hammond at a 2014 NATO assembly. Pic: Reuters
What to anticipate from The Wargame’s return
Episodes one to 5 of The Wargame simulate a Russian assault on the UK and picture what would possibly occur, with former politicians and army chiefs again within the sizzling seat.
The drama reveals how weak the nation has actually turn out to be to an assault on the house entrance.
The 2 new episodes search to search out out why.
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The story of the UK’s hollowed-out defences begins in a distinct period when an Iron Curtain divided Europe, Ronald Reagan was president of the US, and an Iron Woman was in energy in Britain.
Sir Malcolm Rifkind, who went on to function defence secretary between 1992 and 1995 underneath John Main, remembers his time as minister for state on the International Workplace in 1984.
In December of that yr, then prime minister Margaret Thatcher agreed to host a comparatively unknown member of the Soviet Communist Celebration Politburo known as Mikhail Gorbachev, who subsequently turned the final chief of the Soviet Union.
Sir Malcolm remembers how Mrs Thatcher emerged from the assembly to say: “I think Mr Gorbachev is a man with whom we can do business.”
Picture:
Gorbachev was hosted at Chequers in 1984. Pic: Reuters
It was an opinion she shared along with her shut ally, the US president.
Sir Malcolm says: “Reagan would have said, ‘I’m not going to speak to some unknown communist in the Politburo’. But if the Iron Lady, who Reagan thought very highly of, says he’s worth talking to, he must be worth it. We’d better get in touch with this guy. Which they did.
“And I am oversimplifying it, however that led to the Chilly Warfare ending with out a shot being fired.”
Within the years that adopted, the UK and  a lot of the remainder of Europe reaped a so-called peace dividend, chopping defence budgets, shrinking militaries and lowering wider readiness for warfare.
Into this totally different period stepped Tony Blair as Labour’s first post-Chilly Warfare prime minister, with Lord Robertson as his defence secretary.
Picture:
Robertson and Blair in 1998. Pic: Reuters
Lord Robertson reveals the menace he and his ministerial staff secretly made to guard their funds from then chancellor Gordon Brown amid a sweeping evaluation of defence, which was meant to be formed by overseas coverage, not monetary envelopes.
“I don’t think I’ve ever said this in public before, but John Reid, who was the minister for the Armed Forces, and John Speller, who was one of the junior ministers in the department, the three of us went to see Tony Blair late at night – he was wearing a tracksuit, we always remember – and we said that if the money was taken out of our budget, the budget that was based on the foreign policy baseline, then we would have to resign,” Lord Robertson says.
“We obviously didn’t resign – but we kept the money.”
The podcast hears from three different Labour defence secretaries: Geoff Hoon, Lord John Hutton and the present incumbent, John Healey.
Picture:
John Healey, the present defence secretary. Pic: PA
For the Conservatives, in addition to Rifkind, Hammond, Williamson and Wallace, there are interviews with Liam Fox, Sir Michael Fallon, Dame Penny Mordaunt and Sir Grant Shapps.
As well as, army commanders have their say, with recollections from Discipline Marshal Lord David Richards, who was chief of the defence employees from 2010 till 2013, Basic Sir Nick Carter, who led the armed forces from 2018 till 2021, and Vice Admiral Sir Nick Hine, who was second in control of the navy from 2019 till 2022.
‘We reduce too far’
At one level, Sir Grant, who held a wide range of cupboard roles, together with defence secretary, is requested whether or not he regrets the selections the Conservative authorities took when in energy.
He says: “Yes, I think it did cut defence too far. I mean, I’ll just be completely black and white about it.”
Lord Robertson says Labour too shares some duty: “Everyone took the peace dividend right through.”
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