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A bombshell new poll shows the majority of Britons fear the country cannot defend itself from an attack by Russia. In a blow to Labour, more than half (54%) of people who took part in the shocking survey said they are not confident Britain would be able to repel an attack from Vladimir Putin’s forces.

Just over one in three (34%) said they were confident, according to a survey for The i Paper by BMG Research. When broken down, 24% answered they were “fairly confident” and only 10% said “very confident”. Some 13% answered, “don’t know”.

The number of people who took part in the survey was not reported. Experts have long raised concerns over Britain’s ability to defend itself. The country is particularly vulnerable to ballistic missiles, with the Royal Navy’s Sea Viper missile-armed Type 45 destroyers the only layer of defence against the weapons. However, the Navy only has six of the £1 billion warships which have suffered availability issues and are often not deployed.

It is thought Britain would also struggle to fend off waves off Russian drones, as seen regularly in Ukraine. Responding to the survey, retired General Sir Richard Barrons, co-author of last year’s Strategic Defence Review, told The i he “admired the 34 per cent” who were confident in Britain’s ability to stop a Russian attack.

He added: “As the SDR made clear last year, the UK has the Armed Forces it ended up with at the end of the post-Cold War era, yet lives now in a new, far more dangerous era of state confrontation and conflict.”

Mr Burnham has committed to the new NATO target of spending 3.5% of GDP on defence by 2035. He was expected to lay out the roadmap to hitting this figure during his Labour Party conference speech on Wednesday.

However, he did not discuss the plan — prompting criticism from the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. NATO chief Mark Rutte has warned Russia could attack an alliance member within the next five years.

A Government spokesman said: “We’ve delivered the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War – committing nearly £300bn over the next four years. That means more money for the kit and personnel that keep us safe everyday. And we’ve launched the Home Defence Programme, to ensure we’re prepared for potential threats, however likely they may be. Just weeks ago, we announced that we’ll be updating departmental crisis plans, known as The Warbook, and will be holding the largest home defence exercise in recent UK history next year.”