UK ‘ATTACKED EVERY DAY’ BY ADVERSARIES SAYS DEFENCE MINISTER

DEFENCE Minister Luke Pollard has said the UK is subjected to cyber-attacks from adversaries on a daily basis and that the issue – and overall spending – will be included in a forthcoming strategic defence review.

He told GB News: “We’re living in more difficult times and the attack on the children’s hospital in Ukraine, I think further underlines how important it is that we continue to support our friends in Ukraine until they win.

“That’s why this defence review is so important, because it will set out what capabilities we need, what capabilities we need to reinforce. It will start setting out as a first step how we will get to that 2.5% of GDP being spent on defence.

“We know that our armed forces have been hollowed out and underfunded over a long period of time. I don’t think anyone expects that to change overnight, but being clear about what is the sequence we’re spending any increased defence spending on.

“How do we make sure that that money is directed at UK companies first and foremost, providing jobs, skilled apprenticeships and investment in our nations and regions? That’s what the defence review will start setting out and it also will offer an opportunity for us to deliver better value for money.

“Because in the past defence procurement hasn’t been the most efficient. We know that billions of pounds have been wasted.

“What we want to do is drive deep defence procurement reform to make sure that we get a much better value for money than we have in the past with more money being spent on our frontline forces.”

He added: “The defence review will look at the threats that we’re facing. And so we can see, for example, the lessons from Ukraine.

“Our friends in Ukraine are fighting a very different type of land war than we’ve seen in the past the use of drones, the use of deep fire, that striking fire into an opponent’s territory, these are the types of capabilities that we need to reinforce and develop more of if we’re to deter aggression.

“It’s really important that in these difficult times that we’re not only keeping the UK homeland safe, looking at for instance, air defence of the UK, but also making sure that we can support our allies, especially looking at say British forces that are already stationed on NATO’s eastern flank in Estonia.

“That’s why the defence review will be a NATO-first review, securing our own backyard in the Europe and North Atlantic area, making sure that we’ve got the capabilities we need across all domains.

“So that will be air, land and sea but will also be space and cyber because every single day the United Kingdom is attacked on a cyber basis.

“We’re not attacked in a conventional sense, but we are attacked using digital means now that means we need to make sure we’re reinforcing those defences as well to ensure that we are protecting our critical national infrastructure, protecting our defence and ultimately protecting our country.”