WATCH: Penny Mordaunt warns Russia poses a 'very concerning threat' to Britain

is considering military action if a Russian spy ship approaches our coast

after targeting RAF pilots with a laser. Well, the Defence Secretary, John Healy, says the UK is ready to respond

if the ship moves south from the north of Scotland. Well, Russia denies targeting British communications

and they're calling us Russophobic. Which is a real word, apparently. Yeah

Well, let's speak now to former Defence Secretary Penny Mordaunt, who joins us now

Very good morning to you, Penny. How concerned are you about this news

Well, it is a pattern of behaviour that we have seen for some time

We've been very used to them testing our airspace, what you've been seeing over recent weeks and months

about them testing our NATO allies, their airspaces with drones. This is a very systematic thing that they are doing

And they've been up to this stuff for a very long time indeed

They also use what appear to be legitimate commercial entities to lay cabling themselves and then sabotage other people's cabling so that data moves on to their own networks

This is old school. They've done this for a long time. I think it very concerning that they gone as far as doing what they have with regard to the RAF and the Defence Secretary is absolutely right to robustly respond to them How much of a real threat do they pose with this sort of action

or is it simply sabre-rattling? No, they do pose a real threat

and it may not look like them sending missiles over or attacking us in a traditional way that people might expect

But it will be about sabotaging our communications. It will be putting our critical national infrastructure at risk. It will be trying to sabotage the NHS and the data that supports the well-being of our citizens

They are a real threat. And they've said that they're a real threat. They've been quite open about all sorts of things that they're planning on doing

and it's high time we started believing them. Britain has to wake up. We have got to start

rearming and investing in our defences. The first sea lord said a few weeks ago

we have four years to do this in. Keir Starmer is not doing this. He said he believes it's our

moral duty to and he is failing to do it. So as we approach the budget, we have got to put pressure

on the Chancellor to actually deliver and give our armed forces the modern equipment they need to keep us safe

When John Healy said yesterday that Britain would be ready to respond

it also came on the same day as that report by MPs yesterday that said the UK lacks a plan to defend itself from a military attack How ready would we actually realistically be to defend ourselves against an attack like this

Look, our armed forces are incredible. And with the equipment that they have, they use it in a very creative way

I don't want your viewers to worry. We have got what we need to keep us safe

The problem is that in a few years' time, unless we invest now, we won't

We won't be able to do that. We have got to modernise

Your viewers will know how warfare is changing. They'll see what has happened in Ukraine and how things are moving very quickly

Unless we give a signal to industry that it can produce things at the volume we're going to need them

they won't be able to do that. So, look, we've paid lip service to 5% as the new NATO spending floor

We've actually got to do it. And right now, on the Treasury's plans

defence isn't going to get money for five years. In fact, the budget is going to drop

That's an outrage. There's a massive conference going on today in London

called the Price of War Symposium, and it's nations coming together to try and wake people up

to try and say to them, spend money on this critical... I mean it the first duty of any government to protect its citizens and to protect their interests We not doing it in Britain and Rachel Reeves needs to address that next week The trouble is we haven done it for a long time have we I mean we sort of suffered

because of a long time of peace, if you like, and successive governments have thought, well

we don't need to spend all this money. The attitude and the tone of that debate is changing now

isn't it? Well, the debate is changing. I think if you ask most of the general public

they will know we're facing these threats. They will see it on the news. And they understand

the connections between having a strong defence budget and being able to protect our interests

and protecting the NHS, giving food security, keeping our sea lanes open. I think the public

do understand why these things are important. The problem is that the Treasury doesn't

It is continually underfunded and measured things wrongly for defence. It's not been providing

in recent years what this country needs to defend itself. And as we go into the budget

it's got to change that. The Prime Minister stood up in front of the country and the President of

United States and said we would do this, we would do it properly. And currently we're not doing it

And if we start to do it, then I think you'll see less of this emboldened Russia

that seems to be poking us and our NATO allies every day