Neil Kinnock yesterday urged Labour to commit billions of pounds more to defence, amid warnings the UK would struggle to cope with a ballistic missile attack by Russia or other hostile states.

The former Labour leader said Britain’s security was ‘imperilled’ by a failure to respond adequately to technological advances in the Russian military.

He said Labour’s stated ambition to raise defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP would not be enough to keep the UK safe and urged ministers to increase the target to closer to four per cent.

His comments will pile pressure on Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves who scrapped Tory plans to reach the 2.5 per cent milestone by 2030 and who have yet to produce an alternative timetable of their own.

Lord Kinnock told Times Radio that the government could not afford further delay, saying: ‘I will probably lose friends over this, but I think it’s the reality, given the size and nature and complexity of the Russian offensive against the United Kingdom and against Nato generally, I don’t think that 2.5 per cent of GDP will be enough, not least because the kind of things we’ve got to spend on are not just conventional forces – Army, Navy and Air Force – but very complex, high tech resistance to the technological challenges that the Russians, particularly and to some extent the Chinese, but mainly the Russians, pose to us.’

He added: ‘Three, four per cent of GDP is a realistic objective. Now I don’t expect any minister to announce that that’s the objective, but that’s where we’ve got to go because our security is imperilled. 

‘And whilst the focus in the last 30 odd 40 years has naturally been against domestic terrorism, or indeed foreign terrorism, and that’s been completely necessary, there’s no question about that. The exterior threat now comes from the efforts at strategic disruption by the Kremlin.’

His intervention came amid growing concern about Britain’s ability to defend itself against the kind of ballistic missile attack regularly suffered by Israel.

According to the Sunday Times, a draft Nato document to be discussed by the military alliance’s leaders this year raises the need for the UK to invest in air defence systems to protect critical national infrastructure such as nuclear power stations and military bases from attack.

Royal Navy warships are also said to be at risk of being sunk by ballistic missiles developed by states like Iran and Russia, which has boasted that its latest hypersonic devices are unstoppable.

A senior defence source said the UK was already ‘in peril’ and warned that within 15 years a ballistic missile ‘will be able to hit Britain from anywhere in the world’.

Britain currently spends 2.3 per cent of GDP on defence. A strategic defence review led by former Nato chief Lord Robertson is currently looking at the threats faced by the UK and is expected to recommend the figure is raised to at least 2.5 per cent. 

But a final decision on when to increase the defence budget is not expected until June when Rachel Reeves is expected to publish a timetable for hitting the 2.5 per cent target.

Britain’s current defence spending is above Nato’s two per cent minimum. But analysis suggests it falls to just 1.6 per cent on conventional defence when commitments like the Trident nuclear deterrent are excluded. 

Donald Trump is expected to push Nato leaders to increase defence spending to as much as five per cent when he returns to the White House this month.