Latest updates: amid concerns over suspected spy balloons and as part of review of global security, PM urged to deliver hawkish view
A former British ambassador to the US and national security adviser has questioned whether the UK has a “watertight capability” to deal with suspected Chinese spy balloons.
Asked if prime minister Rishi Sunak is right to suggest the UK has a “watertight rapid response to intercept these kind of things”, Lord Kim Darroch told Times Radio he is not totally confident this is the case.
I’m not, to be honest, but I wouldn’t want listeners to get very worried about that.
I’m not because I think we have under-invested in defence for the last couple of decades – one might argue ever since the end of the cold war – and we don’t have all the kit and equipment that we really need and there are gaps around in the technology our armed forces have.
It’s still, I think, unless we discover something new, it’s still well-known technology and it’s still basically surveillance, still basically spying, and the reality is an awful lot of that goes on everywhere.
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