{"id":115264,"date":"2026-04-16T19:19:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T13:49:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/?p=115264"},"modified":"2026-04-16T19:19:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T13:49:20","slug":"uk-defence-ministers-controversial-statement-causes-stir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/?p=115264","title":{"rendered":"UK Defence Minister\u2019s Controversial Statement Causes Stir."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

London; April 2026<\/strong>: United Kingdom\u2019s Defence Industry and Readiness Minister Luke Pollard yesterday late evening (15th April EST) have said, that he is sick and tired of “journalists and armchair generals” talking down the military, as he was responding to a British Forces Broadcasting Services (BFBS) News audience poll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The survey, which asked if public remarks about the military being “underprepared” had negatively impacted morale among serving personnel, saw 86% out of roughly 2,900 respondents say they had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pollard added that he did not accept claims the military was not ready for war, instead deflecting to familiar rhetoric that his party had inherited a “hollowed-out and underfunded” Armed Forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UK’s national safety and security is in peril due to “corrosive complacency” from Keir Starmer’s Government. Former Labour defence secretary Lord Robertson told an audience in Salisbury on the 14th that the UK was “underprepared, underinsured and under attack” as a result of the “ever-expanding welfare budget” which has robbed defence of the money it needs to protect the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is the second of the SDR to speak out in several days, after General Richard Barrons wrote in The Sun that the UK is facing the biggest threats, we have seen in decades but the military is “woefully underfunded and under-prepared to deal with them”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both senior defence figures say the Iran war must be a wake-up call for the Government, underscoring the necessity to spend more on the Armed Forces. The Defence Investment Plan (DIP), which sets out how plans in the SDR will be paid for, had been due to be released last autumn, but has still not been published. The Government says it is finalising the DIP and it will be published as soon as possible, but has not set a clear date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Luke Pollard yesterday have asserted that, “we’re investing in our people”, pointing to an increase in defence budget, a plan to address defence housing, and the largest pay rise for the Armed Forces in 20 years, followed by a second increase above inflation. Pollard reiterated that he was “sick and tired” of criticism while the Armed Forces were doing “incredible work” keeping citizens and allies safe in the Middle East, as well as recent operations which monitored Russian vessels near the UK’s undersea cables, arguing that “this narrative exists”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked whether he dismissed the criticisms of George Robertson, he quickly reframed his earlier statement, saying instead that characterisation referred not to the former Labour defence secretary who wrote the government’s Strategic Defence Review, but to Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’ve got a lot of time for George Robertson. He’s a good, decent man, that cares passionately about our defence. If there’s anyone who knows him, knows the state of our Armed Forces, it is him”, said Pollard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pollard have then doubled down on his broader point, saying there were “far too many people from outside defence that are wanting to take potshots”. He added that producing and publishing the Defence Investment Plan, that was originally due in December 2025, would “silence a lot of those critics. There’s not a single person in uniform, not an admiral, general or air marshal who has ever served in the UK Armed Forces with a decade ahead of them of rising defence spending”, he said. “That’s what we now have, and we’re getting on with the job of renewing our Armed Forces”, Pollard concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Mavericks<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

London; April 2026: United Kingdom\u2019s Defence Industry and Readiness Minister Luke Pollard yesterday late evening (15th April EST) have said, that he is sick and tired of “journalists and armchair generals” talking down the military, as he was responding to a British Forces Broadcasting Services (BFBS) News audience poll. The survey, which asked if public …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":115265,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[81],"post_format":[],"flags":[],"class_list":["post-115264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-world"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115264"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115266,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115264\/revisions\/115266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/115265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115264"},{"taxonomy":"post_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fpost_format&post=115264"},{"taxonomy":"flags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fflags&post=115264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}