Labour has been forced to apologise after one of its former defence ministers said Britain was still a leading power, unlike "bloody Denmark or Belgium".
Lord West, who served as security minister in Gordon Brown's government, made the comments during the launch of Labour's defence policy review on Thursday.
The former First Sea Lord told the assembled journalists at Labour's central London headquarters that he was annoyed at the idea that Britain was no longer a leading military power.
"We are probably, depending on what figures you use, the fifth or sixth wealthiest nation in the world," he said.
"We have the largest percentage of our GDP on exports,"he said."We run world shipping from the UK, we are the largest European investor in south Asia, south-east Asia and the Pacific Rim, so our money and our wealth depends on this global scene."
"We are a permanent member of the Security Council and I think that gives us certain clout and certain ability."
He added: "These mean we are not a second-tier power. We are not bloody Denmark or Belgium."
The Conservative Party was quick to jump to the defence of Britain's Nato allies.
"Labour calls Danish military second rate- our gallant friends on the ground in Helmand and above the skies of Libya. They should apologise," the party's press office said on Twitter.
The shadow defence secretary, Jim Murphy, apologised on Sky News. But said it would have been hard for him to "punch the former head of military and intelligence."
Lord West is not the first British politician to get in to trouble for making fun of the Belgians.
On February 2010 Ukip MEP Nigel Farage caused upset when he described Belgium as a "non-country" during a verbal attack on EU President Herman van Rompuy in the European Parliament.