Nigel Farage attacks the Prime Minister amid warnings the UK is facing a £28 billion shortfall in defence spending.
Keir Starmer’s “spineless” approach to defence spending has left Britain looking like a “pygmy” amid fears the world will be engulfed by multiple conflicts, Nigel Farage has warned. With Iran facing meltdown, Donald Trump threatening war over Greenland and Vladimir Putin still pummelling Ukraine, the Reform UK leader said it was “terrifying” that the UK faced a £28 billion shortfall in defence funding.
Last week it was revealed that the UK’s top military chief, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, told the Prime Minister that the MoD faces the massive shortfall between now and 2030. “Just look what’s happening in the world,” Mr Farage said. “We could soon be embroiled in operations in Iran, and are being drawn closer towards conflict with Putin, and yet thanks to spineless Starmer failing to properly fund our Armed Forces we are now military pygmies on the international stage.”
Mr Farage’s words, in the Mail on Sunday, come amid the escalation of violent street protests against Iran’s Islamic regime.
Diplomatic sources predict that the UK could be drawn into military action if President Trump acts to topple the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi – the man tipped to be the next Shah of Iran if Khamenei is ousted – has said that the UK Government should stand with the Iranian protesters “in their hour of need”.
Protesters in Iran defied a deadly government crackdown on Saturday night, taking to the streets despite reports suggesting hundreds of people have been killed or wounded by security forces in the past three days.
Donald Trump and Keir Starmer (Image: Getty)
Verified videos and eyewitness accounts appeared to show the government was ramping up its response, as it continues an internet blackout.
The country’s attorney general, Mohammad Movahedi Azad, said on Saturday that anyone protesting would be considered an “enemy of God” – an offence that carries the death penalty.
More than 2,500 people have been arrested since protests began on December 28, according to a human rights group.
The protests were sparked by soaring inflation, and have spread to more than 100 cities and towns across every province in Iran.
Now protesters are calling for an end to the clerical rule of Iran’s Supreme Leader.
Khamenei has dismissed demonstrators as a “bunch of vandals” seeking to “please” the US President.
Trump has threatened to hit Iran “very hard” if they “start killing people”.
Diplomatic sources predict that Mr Trump could launch a direct attack on the Iranian regime in response to its crackdown on protesters, which has led to the death of more than 50 people.
That could involve the use of British military assets.
Violent clashes in Tehran (Image: Getty)
America has ramped up its military presence in the UK since the start of the year.
On January 4, US Air Force transport planes carrying helicopters belonging to the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment landed at RAF Mildenhall and RAF Fairford.
US aircraft flew from the Mildenhall base on Thursday as part of an operation to seize the ‘ghost’ Russian tanker, Bella 1 – which has been accused of breaking American sanctions on shipping Iranian oil – as it sailed through the North Atlantic.
The interception of the tanker, which had been trading with Iran and Venezuela since 2021, came after President Trump’s daring raid last weekend to capture Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro and fly him to New York to face drugs and weapons charges.
In a report for the influential Policy Exchange think-tank, retired Air Marshal Stringer said that the UK had been left exposed as the ‘Western-favouring, American-policed, rules-based international order’ gave way to ‘the use of transactional hard power to provide security’.
He added: “The tide has gone out and we can now see that the UK military was not wearing any trunks.”
Mr Farage says of the £28billion defence shortfall: “At a time when China is attempting to infiltrate us at every turn and Russian submarines lurk menacingly beneath our waters, this is nothing short of terrifying.
“The Prime Minister and his Chancellor repeatedly argue that the government has committed to raising defence spending to 3 per cent by 2035. But that’s a decade away. Just look what’s happening in the world. We need to get a move on, pronto.”
A No10 source said: “While Nigel Farage acts as Putin’s puppet by admitting he would not stand up for Ukraine, the Prime Minister is raising the UK defence budget to record levels by delivering the biggest spending boost since the Cold War.”
