Armed Forces lose out to cyber war

Military denied extra funding as cash is devoted to reinforcing the digital front line

THE Armed Forces will not receive any extra funding as a result of a major national security review, the Ministry of Defence has been told.

Ministers had hoped to avoid potentially damaging cuts to the military if the review recommended a boost in MOD resources to fight terrorism.

But The Daily Telegraph has learnt that Mark Sedwill, the national security adviser, believed it was more important to increase funding to fight cyber attacks than bolster the conventional Armed Forces.

Amid growing public anger among Tory MPS and former senior officers at the scale of the possible cuts, Gavin Williamson, the new Defence Secretary, is set to have a showdown meeting this week with Philip Hammond.

Mr Williamson, who was today due to make his first appearance at the dispatch box since replacing Sir Michael Fallon three weeks ago, wants an extra £2 billion a year to prevent a fresh round of potentially devastating cuts.

Yesterday Liam Fox, the former defence secretary, confirmed there were “tensions” in the MOD about defence spending cuts.

Dozens of Tory MPS have written to the Chancellor urging him to increase defence spending to avoid the need to make any front-line cuts.

Sir Michael indicated he was prepared to speak out on “what is the right level of defence spending to meet the threats that our country faces”, in a first major intervention since resigning.

The row is another worry for Theresa May as she seeks to move Brexit talks on to the shape of a new trade deal with the European Union.

The Prime Minister ordered the security review led by Mr Sedwill in the wake of the terror attacks in London and Manchester in the summer.

The MOD has already warned that it needs between £17billion and £20billion to fill a funding shortfall in the 10 years from April next year, and had hoped that extra cash – £2 billion a year – would be agreed as part of the review.

However, Mr Sedwill is understood to have told the MOD that it will not get any more money on top of its £36billion-a-year budget.

One ministerial source told The Telegraph that Mr Sedwill “is determined to screw over the MOD” because he wants more money to tackle security threats in cyber space. A ministerial source said: “The problem is the NSA [Mr Sedwill] is driving a ‘within-the costs-envelope’ approach at everyone.”

The MOD had been given a deadline of the end of this week by Mr Sedwill to submit its ideas for the review. This has now been delayed until the new year.

It had already drawn up a list of savings including sacking 1,000 Marines, cutting two ships, and slowing down an order for F35 stealth jets. Another option was to take the cost of building

the replacement for Britain’s nuclear submarines – hundreds of millions of pounds a year – out of the Mod’s budget.

The Army reportedly faces being cut to below 70,000 from a target of 82,000, while Royal Marine numbers could fall by 1,000 from around 6,500.

The Army is already more than 4,000 below its target of 82,000, its smallest since the time of Cromwell.

Mr Hammond told MPS on the 1922 Committee last week that he would “sit down” with Mr Williamson “as a matter of urgency” this week to discuss his concerns, although by last night no official meeting had been scheduled with civil servants.

A friend of Mr Williamson’s said he had been “a little taken aback” by the scale of proposed cuts.

The friend added: “He does not feel like this is something that he can make any negative changes and feel all right about. He is willing to take his message to the Treasury and we will see how much of an impact he makes.”

Dr Fox, the International Trade Secretary, yesterday told Sky News: “There are always a lot of tensions, not just between MOD and Treasury but also inside the MOD between different parts of the Armed Forces and naturally there are concerns about the future shape of that.”

At least one defence minister – Tobias Ellwood – has threatened to resign if the cuts go ahead.

Sir Nicholas Soames, the Tory grandee and Sir Winston Churchill’s grandson, added: “The Conservative ... party has a duty now to unite against further defence cuts to capability.”

Lord Boyce, a former chief of the defence staff, told the Lords last week that cuts were hollowing out the military.

He said: “The defence budget is not in a good place and soothing words from the Government that all is in order run counter to every single other commentator on defence.” He said it was proving impossible to find more savings and “therefore, savings measures are being run that are not efficiencies at all but capability cuts”.

An MOD spokesman said: “No decisions have been made and any discussion of the options is pure speculation.”

A Treasury spokesman said: “We cannot comment on speculation on meetings between cabinet ministers.”