Britain has never looked more exposed, adrift in the Atlantic in a world pulsing with perils

Sir Keir Starmer is confronted with several stark strategic dilemmas and they won’t be resolved by wishful thinking

‘I don’t know what effect these men will have upon the enemy, but, by God, they frighten me.” I thought of the Duke of Wellington’s remark about his soldiers when Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the chief of the defence staff, gave a speech last week in which he shivered the blood by describing the security outlook as “more contested, more ambiguous and more dangerous” than at any time in his career. This came a couple of days after a spine-chiller from Richard Horne, the head of the National Cyber Security Centre, who warned that there is “a clearly widening gap” between the UK’s vulnerability to escalating cyber warfare by adversaries and “the defences that are in place to protect us”. Another call to put up our guard has been issued by Sir Richard Moore, the head of MI6, who raised the alarm about a “staggeringly reckless campaign of Russian sabotage in Europe”. In 37 years in intelligence, he has “never seen the world in a more dangerous state”. If you are not scared yet, have a listen to Ken McCallum, the director general of MI5, saying that his agency has had to “pare back” its work on counter-terrorism to meet the growing threat from Russia, Iran and other hostile states.

The cynically minded in government note that these quasi-apocalyptic alerts are being issued in the midst of a strategic defence review, which is due to report early next year, and a comprehensive spending review, which is scheduled to conclude in June. Those responsible for our security are in competition for additional resources against all the demands for more spending from the civilian side of the street.

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