The government has a 'defense denial' attitude and puts the UK at risk, according to government advisor George Robertson's scathing criticism of military policy.

Robertson, a former NATO secretary-general and author of the government's strategic defense review, believes that Sir Keir Starmer is 'not prepared to make the necessary investment', the Financial Times reported.

Lord Robertson will also warn in a lecture in Salisbury on Tuesday that the Iranian war 'must have caused a sharp wake-up call'.

Former General Richard Barons, who co-authored the defense review with Robertson, reiterated his concerns. "This is a sign of how serious it is that someone who has been a Labour Party activist for 60 years and was NATO secretary-general has to say this in these terms today," Barons told BBC Radio 4's Today program.

Robertson, a former defense secretary who led NATO from 1999 to 2003, also accuses 'non-military experts in the Treasury' of 'vandalism'. "We cannot defend Britain with a constantly rising welfare budget," he told the Financial Times in an interview.

He will say in his speech: "We are underprepared. We are underinsured. We are under attack. We are not safe... British national security and security are at risk."

Barons said: "There is a huge gap between where we should be to defend the country in the world we now live in, and where we actually are."

Asked how he responded to US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who mocked the Royal Navy last week, Barons said: "I hang my head in shame, but I cannot justify him, because although the Royal Navy, Royal Air Force, and Army, in their essence, are excellent institutions, they are simply too small and underfed to cope with the world we now live in. And the review says that."

The government's proposals to fund the recommendations of the strategic defense review, including a 10-year defense investment plan that was supposed to be announced last autumn, have been repeatedly delayed amid warnings of a £28 billion funding gap for the military over the next four years.

Barons said: "The choice on the Prime Minister's desk is either to find more money to implement the new de minimis review at the pace we agreed last year, or he announces a £28 billion cut. And how does that fit into the world we find ourselves in today?"

The Ministry of Defense, the Treasury, and Downing Street have reportedly failed to reach an agreement on how to proceed.

Robertson believes that cuts in other departments may be necessary to increase defense funding. In his speech, he will say that Chancellor Rachel Reeves "only used 40 words about defense in a speech lasting over an hour" last year in her budget speech, and "in her Spring Statement last month, she used none."

He will add: "There is a crippling complacency among Britain's political leaders today. Only lip service is paid to the risks, the threats, the bright red danger signals - but even the promised national conversation about defense cannot be started."

In February, Luke Pollard, the minister for defense preparedness and industry, told the Guardian that the investment plan was "a bigger task than many people outside defense realize."

This means "fundamentally changing our armed forces, particularly towards more autonomy," he said, also highlighting the need to restock military supplies that have been sent to Ukraine in recent years. "It's not just a simple matter of replacing tank A with tank B."

Robertson said he would cite the country's inability to deploy more than one Royal Navy ship to the Mediterranean in the first two weeks of the Iranian war as an example of Britain's complacency in defense.

In his speech, he will warn that the UK is not only experiencing a shortage of military equipment but also a "crisis in logistics, engineering, cyber, ammunition, training, and medical resources."

Last week, Defense Secretary John Healey revealed a covert Russian submarine operation targeting critical underwater infrastructure in UK waters.

A government spokesperson said: "We are providing a strategic defense review to address the threats we face. It is supported by the largest sustained increase in defense spending since the Cold War, with a total of £270 billion invested in this Parliament."

They said the government is aiming to finalize and publish the defense investment plan as soon as possible.