Nigel Farage has condemned Sir Keir Starmer’s ‘spineless’ approach to defence spending, which he says has left Britain looking like a ‘pygmy’ as the world teeters on the edge of multiple incendiary conflicts.

With Iran facing meltdown, Donald Trump threatening war over Greenland and Vladimir Putin menacing Europe through Ukraine, the Reform UK leader said it was ‘terrifying’ that the UK faced a £28 billion shortfall in defence funding.

‘Just look what’s happening in the world,’ Mr Farage writes in today’s Mail on Sunday.

‘We could soon be embroiled in operations in Iran, and are being drawn closer towards conflict with Putin, and yet thanks to spineless Starmer failing to properly fund our Armed Forces we are now military pygmies on the international stage.’

Last week it was revealed that the UK’s top military chief, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, told the Prime Minister that the MoD faces a £28 billion shortfall between now and 2030.

Mr Farage’s words came amid the escalation of violent street protests against Iran’s Islamic regime, with diplomatic sources predicting that the UK could be drawn into military action if President Trump acts to topple the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Tonight, exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi – the man tipped to be the next Shah of Iran if Khamenei is ousted – told the MoS that the UK Government should stand with the Iranian protesters ‘in their hour of need’.

The 64-year-old said: ‘The Iranian people are moving forward with great courage and determination. In the last few days they have responded to my calls to action in their millions’.

Thousands of protesters took to the streets of major cities across Iran on Friday night chanting ‘Bring back Pahlavi!’

Pahlavi, who fled to the US with his father, the deposed Shah, after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, also revealed that he is spearheading regime change by offering members of Iran’s hated Revolutionary Guard and military the chance to secretly switch sides using a secure QR code.

Diplomatic sources predict that Mr Trump could launch a direct attack on the Iranian regime in response to its crackdown on protesters, which has led to the death of more than 50 people. That could involve the use of British military assets.

In other developments:

• Sources said that Mr Trump has ordered his Joint Special Operations Command to prepare a detailed plan for the invasion of Greenland, to annex the Danish territory on the grounds of its strategic location and mineral wealth.

• The BBC faced growing criticism over its coverage of the Iranian protests, which were described as ‘blundering’ and ‘shameful’ for understating their significance.

• The defence row was stoked further by retired Air Marshal Edward Stringer, who described Britain’s national defences as a ‘flimsy facade’.

US aircraft flew from the Mildenhall base on Thursday as part of an operation to seize the ‘ghost’ Russian tanker, Bella 1 – which has been accused of breaking American sanctions on shipping Iranian oil – as it sailed through the North Atlantic.

The interception of the tanker, which had been trading with Iran and Venezuela since 2021, came after President Trump’s daring raid last weekend to capture Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro and fly him to New York to face drugs and weapons charges.

In a report for the influential Policy Exchange think-tank, retired Air Marshal Stringer said that the UK had been left exposed as the ‘Western-favouring, American-policed, rules-based international order’ gave way to ‘the use of transactional hard power to provide security’.

He added: ‘The tide has gone out and we can now see that the UK military was not wearing any trunks.’

In his MoS article, Mr Farage says of the £28billion defence shortfall: ‘At a time when China is attempting to infiltrate us at every turn and Russian submarines lurk menacingly beneath our waters, this is nothing short of terrifying.

‘The Prime Minister and his Chancellor repeatedly argue that the government has committed to raising defence spending to 3 per cent by 2035. But that’s a decade away. Just look what’s happening in the world. We need to get a move on, pronto.’

He also said he would vote against the ‘absurd plan’ to send British troops to Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping force should the war cease, saying the Army ‘possesses neither the manpower nor the supplies required for a long-term operation’.

A No 10 source said: ‘While Nigel Farage acts as Putin’s puppet by admitting he would not stand up for Ukraine, the Prime Minister is raising the UK defence budget to record levels by delivering the biggest spending boost since the Cold War.’