UK has no defence plan despite threat from Putin's Russia

The UK has no plan to defend the nation in the event of war, including how to mobilise the National Health Service to deal with mass casualties, the head of the military has revealed.

The admission by Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton – confirming a report by Sky News from almost two years ago – came despite mounting warnings about the threat of conflict with Russia and as Donald Trump makes hostile noises about seizing Greenland.

Answering wide-ranging questions from MPs on Monday, the chief of the defence staff also confirmed that the Ministry of Defence lacks funding to cover its equipment programme as well as additional ambitions set out in a sweeping review of defence published in June.

He refused to say whether he was facing a budget shortfall and steered away from using the word “cuts”, but said that reducing or slowing military programmes were among the options being considered.

Air Chief Marshal Knighton, at times sounding frustrated, told members of the defence select committee not to “put words in my mouth” as he was pressed on reports that he had warned the prime minister before Christmas that defence has a £28bn hole in its budget over the next four years and would be required to make significant cuts without more money.

He said: “If we wanted to do everything that’s currently in the programme and do all the extra things in the SDR [Strategic Defence Review], could we do that with the budget that we’ve got? The answer is no.”