Report: ‘Casual’ PM not ready for national crisis

THE Prime Minister may be taking a “more casual” approach to the country’s national security, a scathing report has warned in the wake of the pandemic and the UK’S chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

MPS and Lords warned that the National Security Council (NSC) – chaired by Boris Johnson – is not up to the job.

Today’s report states that Mr Johnson is now “spending roughly 65 per cent less time in NSC meetings” – despite the fact an expert warned the UK faces roughly a “one in six chance of existential catastrophe in the next 100 years”.

The Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy says the “limited preparation for Nato’s withdrawal of troops [from Afghanistan] can only be described as a systemic failure”.

It adds that changes to how the NSC works, which will involve the PM spending less time in meetings, is a “retrograde step that suggests a more casual approach to national security”. It warns: “Recent events in Afghanistan suggest the NSC and the cross-government machinery that supports its work are inadequate.

“When [Covid] came, decade-old NSC structures were abandoned... and improvisation [which] we regard as a serious mistake.we are concerned that the Government has proven unable to prepare for and respond to two crises simultaneously.”

The committee received evidence from Toby Ord, an Oxford academic and existential risk expert – who wrote that “pandemics, extreme climate change scenarios, nuclear conflicts and the creation of an unaligned artificial general intelligence” all have the potential to destroy Britain.

He added: “As Covid-19 demonstrated, the UK’S approach to planning for extreme risks is currently deficient in a range of key areas. An existential catastrophe would destroy the UK’S present and the future… the UK would by definition be unable to recover.” A government spokeswoman said the PM was “committed” to national security, adding he has “agreed a unique trilateral defence arrangement with Australia and the United States” following a “record increase in defence spending, the opening of a new Counter Terrorism Operations Centre, and a new modernisation programme for the Armed Forces”.

She added: “The National Security machinery is being strengthened in response to the Integrated Review – the UK’S national security approach to 2030 set out by the PM – as well as events such as Covid and Afghanistan, as necessary.”

‘Afghanistan was

systemic failure’