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Sir Gavin Williamson tells David Williamson about his fears for Britain’s safety (Image: glenn gratton)<\/p>\n
Sir Gavin Williamson<\/a> was notorious for keeping a Mexican red-kneed tarantula<\/a> named Cronus in his office when he was Conservative Chief Whip. The hairy spider<\/a> passed away this year and his present companion could not be more different. A highly affectionate \u201cworking cocker\u201d spaniel named Lottie now accompanies him to Parliament and she clearly adores her owner.<\/p>\n I have never before conducted an interview while being repeatedly licked but Lottie is ablaze with a friendly delight in life rarely encountered in Westminster. Right now, the former Defence Secretary\u2019s thoughts are focused on something far more frightening than a giant spider. He is worried about the threat posed by Russia<\/a> to a United Kingdom he believes urgently needs to rearm.<\/p>\n \u201cWe’re not in a Cold War,\u201d he warns. \u201cWe’re one step up above that.\u201d<\/p>\n Britain is a \u201cmuch greater\u201d target than other European states, he argues, because this country is a \u201cwarrior nation\u201d which has repeatedly proven its readiness<\/a> to confront aggressors.<\/p>\n \u201cRussia<\/a> sees Britain differently to how they see France or Germany,\u201d he says. \u201cThey see Britain as a greater threat because they know Britain will lead from the front \u2013 Britain isn’t nervous about standing on its own in order to be able to do what is right. Let us not forget, in World War 2, Britain was the only country that went to war to defend the rights of others. Every other country went to war because they had been attacked themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n Britain, he warns, has not woken up to the scale of the threat before us. He argues Sir Keir Starmer<\/a>\u2019s premiership was defined by \u201ca naivety about politics and a naivety about the intentions of others\u201d.<\/p>\n He explains: \u201cWhat scares me is \u2013 and some of us have been making an argument for quite a long time \u2013 the threat level is rising so quickly, and still in Britain, prime ministers are not willing to face up to the really difficult and tough choices that need to be made.\u201d<\/p>\n Sir Gavin Williamson when Education Secretary (Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n Sir Gavin argues that the level of defence investment talked about today won\u2019t \u201ceven scratch the surface\u201d and the nation needs to go much further in developing resilience against attack while expanding the size of the armed forces. In April there were just 74,370 members of the regular army.<\/p>\n \u201cWe’ve got to get back up to a point where we have 100,000 men in our army again,\u201d he says, as well as pressing for an \u201cenormous expansion\u201d of the reserves.<\/p>\n Sir Gavin sees both challenges and opportunities when it comes national rearmament. In World War 2, he points out, Britain was home to factories which switched to manufacturing planes, tanks and artillery as part of the war effort; now, he laments, we have \u201clost so much of that infrastructure\u201d. Reindustrialisation, he argues, is both \u201cvital for our resilience\u201d and an opportunity to grow the economy.<\/p>\n He enthuses: \u201cWe still have the skills to produce the very best things in the world\u2026 We’ve got the ability to do it, but actually, with the right imagination, with the right investment, the Government could turn us into a defence superpower.\u201d<\/p>\n France, he states, has \u201calways been very good\u201d at \u201cbacking French industry first\u201d. A key challenge is winning Treasury support for investment.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Express regularly covered my spats with the Treasury,\u201d he says. \u201cThe danger with the Treasury is it understands the price of everything and the value of nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Sir](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/7061823.jpg\" "\\"Sir")
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