The delay in publishing the United Kingdom's plans for defence spending has damaged the country's credibility with its allies, according to the Commons Public Accounts Committee. The cross-party group of MPs warned that the hold-up has undermined the government's ability to equip the armed forces for the modern battlefield.
At the centre of the criticism is a document known as the Defence Investment Plan. It should have been published last autumn, but its release has been repeatedly delayed, leaving a gap that the committee says has had real consequences.
The watchdog's report is scathing about the costs of that delay. It concludes that the hold-up has led to an inability to deter the United Kingdom's adversaries, that it has hampered efforts to equip the armed forces for the kind of conflict they might now face, and that it has undermined the Ministry of Defence's credibility.
That loss of credibility is felt not only abroad but at home. The report singles out the effect on British defence firms, who are left waiting on the government's plans, with the uncertainty making it harder for them to plan and for the country to present a clear and convincing position to its partners.
The backdrop is a security environment that the Prime Minister has described in stark terms. He has said the threats the United Kingdom faces are very real, and that it is no exaggeration to say the country is living through more dangerous and volatile times than at any point in his life, with the prospect of all-out conflict having returned to Europe alongside the rise of China and a shift in American attention away from the continent.
In response to the criticism, the Ministry of Defence said it was working hard to finalise its Defence Investment Plan. For now, though, the committee's verdict leaves the government under pressure to deliver a document that it argues is long overdue and central to the country's ability to defend itself and reassure its allies.