Failure to increase defence budget 'would breach undertaking by PM'
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Version 0 of 1. The former head of the British army has warned David Cameron that he will be in breach of an “undertaking” he gave to service chiefs in 2010 if he fails to increase defence spending in real terms in the next parliament. In a sign of the military’s deep concerns over the government’s refusal to say whether it will continue to meet the Nato target of spending 2% of GDP on defence, Gen Sir Peter Wall warned that Britain’s armed forces would be “hollowed out” if cuts continued. Britain meets the 2% Nato target but this is now in question because the main parties have declined to commit to protecting defence spending in the next parliament. The government is expected to face fresh pressure on defence spending in a Commons debate on Thursday. The remarks by Wall, who became chief of the general staff a month before stringent defence cuts were agreed with the service chiefs in October 2010, were endorsed by Luke Coffey, the former special adviser to Liam Fox, who was defence secretary at the time. Coffey told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday: “When the Ministry of Defence received its final settlement in October 2010 it was very clear to Liam Fox and his ministers, Jock Stirrup [former chief of the defence staff] and his service chiefs that there would be a real-terms increase in the defence budget between 2015 and 2020. That is what made this difficult pill to swallow that much easier in terms of the defence cuts that the department received at the time.” The two figures at the heart of the negotiation on spending in the strategic defence and security review in the autumn spoke out after the foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, declined over the weekend to confirm whether the Tories would meet the 2% Nato target in the next parliament. Labour has also declined to make such a commitment. Wall told BBC Newsnight that this would mark a breach of an undertaking given by the prime minister in 2010. The former chief of general staff, who retired last September, said: “There was certainly a comprehensive plan that took account of the inability of the government in austere economic times to fund the aspiration that defence was holding then at the beginning of the current parliament. “It saw a significant reduction in the defence budget – initially 8%, since then probably another couple of percent – against the expectation and an undertaking that the budget would increase when the economy started to turn the corner and improve.” Asked whether the undertaking was given by the prime minister, Wall said: “Yes, an undertaking between the prime minister and the defence secretary in which the chiefs of staff were involved that would see us essentially leading the forces to a different place in the short term with an implied assurance that we would be able to afford a balanced structure on a new plateau out to 2020. That was called Future Force 2020.” The former head of the army warned of major consequences if the spending did not increase or was cut. He said of the Future Force 2020 plan: “It will either get hollowed out, become less resilient, or be cut or a bit of both depending on the scale of any reductions … “If we are going to consciously step back from our historic role in the world and accept with that we can have smaller defence capabilities … then we should do it consciously rather than by an agreement from all three parties that: well that doesn’t really matter any longer and we will let it go by default.” Hammond, who served as defence secretary after succeeding Fox in 2011, declined to give a commitment to meet the 2% spending target in the next parliament. The foreign secretary said the prime minister had led calls at the Nato summit in Wales last year for the target to be met, but told The Andrew Marr Show on BBC1: “There are two things I can’t do today. I can’t tell you what will be in the Conservative manifesto but you’ll find out soon enough, and I can’t prejudge the outcome of the security and defence review and the spending review that will take place after the next election. “The prime minister … is passionate about our armed forces, he has always been absolutely clear that he is not prepared to preside over any further cuts in our regular armed forces. So he knows where he wants to go. “But we’ve got very difficult decisions to make in delivering our long-term economic plan to get Britain out of deficit and starting to pay down instead. We’ve got to make those difficult balanced decisions, but we will protect the integrity and the strength of our armed forces.” |