Sir Michael Fallon has described Jeremy Corbyn as feeble and gutless on defence, adding that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, would welcome a Labour victory.

The defence secretary said the UK had put in place protections to try to prevent Russia intervening in the general election as it had in other European elections and allegedly in the White House race.

Russia wants to be a competitor not partner to west – Michael Fallon Read more

Fallon was speaking in Estonia, where he took part in a ceremony to formally mark the deployment of 800 British troops as part of a Nato effort to deter Russian interference in the Baltic states.

Speaking to British journalists, he said: “Russia will be watching Labour’s feebleness that Jeremy Corbyn has not supported this deployment. He has questioned it. He has questioned this deployment.

“He has not made clear how they would finance our 2% commitment to Nato and at every point he has voted against a stronger defence, including the renewal of Trident last July. Russia will be watching that, will have noted that feebleness and will be watching it throughout this campaign.”

Fallon was used during the 2015 general election as the Conservative bruiser, making highly critical personal attacks on the then Labour leader, Ed Miliband.

Asked if Putin would want Corbyn to win, Fallon said: “Putin would certainly welcome feebler British defence … Any undermining of our deterrent or our commitment to 2% defence spending or any gutlessness in response to Russian aggression would certainly be welcome in Moscow.”

He also criticised the Scottish National party leader, Nicola Sturgeon, saying a Labour-SNP coalition would weaken defence.

Amid concerns that a cyber-attack on the UK parties might be mounted from Russia, Fallon said: “We took steps before the 2015 election to protect our systems against Russian interference, including our democratic systems. Those protections remain in place and we will obviously be watching for any of the kind of interference we have seen in continental elections and is alleged to have taken place in the American election but we are well protected.”

He had seen no evidence that Russia had tried to interfere in 2015. Fallon claimed that US and other Nato allies had expressed concern about the impact a Corbyn premiership would have on defence.

“When he was first elected leader, yes there were obviously questions about his posture and again during the run-up to the Trident vote last July. Our allies obviously depend too on the deterrent. Nato is a nuclear alliance and Labour’s failure to wholeheartedly back the deterrence is obviously a continuing concern for the US and our other allies.”

But he added that no expression of concern had been raised by the Trump administration.

On Sturgeon, he said: “She was ready to work with Labour to frustrate a Conservative government, which is again extremely worrying for defence that you might see that kind of coalition – coalition of chaos the prime minister called it – but one that might damage our defence because both Corbyn and Nicola Sturgeon would dismantle our deterrent and would weaken our defences.”

The UK deployment to Estonia is the biggest since the end of the cold war. The UK troops are part of a combined force that includes French and Danish troops.

As part of a build-up since the Russian annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, the UK on Monday will send Typhoons to Romania and send a destroyer to the Black Sea in the summer.

The British troops are based at Tapa, on the main highway between the Estonian capital and the Russian border. They officially began their Nato mission to bolster Estonian defences at a flag-raising ceremony.



The Estonian defence minister, Marcus Tsahkna, at the ceremony, said Estonia had made a mistake by not standing up to aggression in the Second World War. It would not repeat that mistake. Estonia would not go quietly again.



He said the presence of the British, French and Danish troops sent a powerful signal that when Estonia said one for all and all for one, it meant it.



Fallon, speaking at the ceremony, said: “No-one should pretend this deployment is anything other than defensive. Estonia does not stand alone on its frontier of freedom”.

