{"id":965102,"date":"2026-05-16T19:29:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T19:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/965102\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T19:29:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T19:29:38","slug":"britain-must-be-ready-to-lead-nato-without-us-in-nuclear-crisis-politics-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/965102\/","title":{"rendered":"Britain must be ready to lead NATO without US in nuclear crisis | Politics | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Britain has been urged to leave its adversaries in no doubt<\/a> that NATO<\/a> will still have a nuclear<\/a> deterrent even if the United States stays on the sidelines in a future crisis. The Prime Minister, the Defence Secretary and the Home Secretary are encouraged to take part in \u201clarge scale nuclear exercises\u201d to strengthen Britain\u2019s credibility as a nation prepared to defend itself with nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n

The UK must be ready to act as the lead NATO members in such emergencies<\/a>, according to a new report endorsed by President George W Bush\u2019s former special adviser on nuclear issues. Franklin Miller, who was also a nuclear specialist at the US Department of Defence, has sounded the alarm about the threat posed by Russia<\/a> and China.<\/p>\n

He warns that following the end of the Cold War, the experts and officials who guided Britain \u201cthrough the epic nuclear confrontation with the USSR took an intellectual holiday\u201d \u2013 but Moscow and Beijing did not. In his foreword to an analysis from the Policy Exchange think tank, he describes how Vladimir Putin<\/a> launched a \u201cmassive modernisation of Russia\u2019s intercontinental and sub-strategic nuclear systems\u201d in the early 2010s, with China\u2019s Xi Jinping<\/a> also launching a \u201cbreathtaking\u201d build-up of nuclear forces.<\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s efforts to modernise the submarine fleet and the Atomic Weapons Establishment are \u201cnot enough\u201d, he warns and \u201cmuch more needs be done\u201d for the UK to have a \u201ccredible deterrent\u201d. The former presidential adviser acknowledges the \u201cunsteadiness in America\u2019s commitment to NATO\u201d and calls on Britain to \u201cassume a greater leadership role within the alliance\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said Britain must make it clear \u201cthat any potential adversary can assume that if (for whatever unimaginable reasons) the American government chose to stay on the sidelines in a crisis NATO still has a nuclear deterrent to counter threats\u201d.<\/p>\n

A key question facing the nation is whether to invest in a \u201csovereign mid-range nuclear system of its own\u201d at a time of \u201cobvious uncertainties associated with American attitudes\u201d.<\/p>\n

The author of the report, Policy Exchange\u2019s Daniel Skeffington, argues that in order to deter the nation\u2019s foes, there should be \u201clarge-scale nuclear exercises involving senior politicians, including the Prime Minister, Defence Secretary, and Home Secretary, actively rehearsing nuclear operations with field forces\u201d.<\/p>\n

An \u201cabsolute necessity\u201d is that Britain must invest in upgrading \u201cadditional airfields to disperse its conventional and nuclear-capable aircraft in a crisis\u201d.<\/p>\n

He states: \u201cThis must be a priority for the Government, and funding must be given to stand this up quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shadow Defence Secretary James Cartlidge said: \u201cThis report is a serious warning that deterrence only works if our adversaries believe Britain has both the capability and the resolve to act. But under Labour, we have no Defence Investment Plan, no real plan to boost defence spending, and no willingness to take the tough decisions needed to reduce the welfare bill. Only the Conservatives<\/a> have a fully funded plan to deliver more than \u00a320billion of additional spending for Defence this Parliament \u2013 by restoring the two child benefit cap; scrapping Labour\u2019s crazy Chagos deal and moving billions from Ed Miliband\u2019s net zero vanity projects into Defence.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: \u201cOur commitment to Britain\u2019s nuclear deterrent is absolute. It protects us every moment of every day. As we face an increasingly volatile world, our nuclear deterrent is more important than ever. Following the Strategic Defence Review, we are investing \u00a315billion in the UK\u2019s sovereign nuclear warhead programme, significantly expanding our nuclear-powered submarine fleet, building up to 12 attack submarines as part of AUKUS programme, and procuring 12 nuclear capable F35-As in response to the rapidly increasing threats. We are a leader in the alliance \u2013 committing our nuclear deterrent in full to the defence of NATO, and we will join NATO\u2019s dual capable aircraft mission, keeping Britain safe at home and strong abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Britain has been urged to leave its adversaries in no doubt that NATO will still have a nuclear…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":965103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,2993,269496,32,393,4884,2821,269494,1144,8041,8593,269495,712,16,269493,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-965102","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-defence","12":"tag-defence-investment","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-england","15":"tag-great-britain","16":"tag-nato","17":"tag-nato-leadership","18":"tag-northern-ireland","19":"tag-nuclear-weapons","20":"tag-royal-navy","21":"tag-russia-and-china-threats","22":"tag-scotland","23":"tag-uk","24":"tag-uk-nuclear-deterrent","25":"tag-united-kingdom","26":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116585913815738541","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=965102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/965103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=965102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=965102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=965102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}