MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

UK Defense minister “sick and tired of journalists and armchair generals” talking our military are ‘unprepared’

UK Defense Readiness & Industry Minister Luke Pollard, during a late 2024 visit to the Falkland Islands (Pic BFSAI))

In a contradictory remark he would later retract, UK Defense Readiness & Industry Minister Luke Pollard said he was sick and tired of “journalists and armchair generals” talking down the military, as he was pressed in response to a BFBS Forces News audience poll.

Minister Pollard said there were “far too many people from outside defense that are wanting to take potshots”

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. 

Mr 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.

The minister said “we're investing in our people,” pointing to an increase in defense budget, a plan to address defense housing, and the largest pay rise for the Armed Forces in 20 years, followed by a second increase above inflation. 

Mr 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”.

When asked whether he dismissed the criticisms of George Robertson, he quickly reframed his earlier statement, saying instead that characterization referred not to the former Labour defense secretary who wrote the Government's Strategic Defense Review, but to Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and shadow defense secretary James Cartlidge.

“I've got a lot of time for George Robertson,” he said. “He's a good, decent man that cares passionately about our defense. If there's anyone who knows him, knows the state of our Armed Forces, it is him.”

Mr Pollard then doubled down on his broader point, saying there were “far too many people from outside defense that are wanting to take potshots”. 

He added that producing and publishing the Defense 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 defense spending,” he said. 

“That's what we now have – and we're getting on with the job of renewing our Armed Forces.” (Report by Joe Hearn, Forces.net)