Armed Forces need more funding ‘to protect homeland’

BRITAIN’S defence budget must be increased to ensure the Armed Forces can protect the “homeland” against potential attacks from China or Russia, a former military chief has warned.

General Sir Richard Barrons delivered a stark warning to Philip Hammond in the run-up to the Chancellor’s Budget next month as he said that “the future will not replicate the comfortable recent past”.

The retired officer has said that Britain would be unable to “deal with” an attack by another major power and that it risked losing the ability to protect British citizens during times of “great jeopardy”.

Sir Richard, who until last year led the UK’S Joint Forces Command which has responsibility for preparing for future conflicts, also warned that reducing the size of the British army below 82,000 would be a “problem”.

Sir Richard told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the UK needed to be prepared to fight “wars of necessity” in the future but he admitted that he did not believe his argument would persuade the Chancellor to allocate more funding to the Armed Forces.