Royal Marines chief postpones new role to battle government cuts

THE head of the Royal Marines has postponed moving on from the job so he can fight cuts to the elite infantry force, he told his troops.

Maj Gen Rob Magowan was told by the head of the Navy to stay in post and keep fighting for the Marines as the corps nears the end of a defence review that could see 1,000 men axed.

Maj Gen Magowan, the Commandant General Royal Marines, has written to the corps’s official journal to assure troops he is personally confronting the threat, with a team of top staff.

The Armed Forces face another round of potentially deep cuts as they try to make £20billion of savings over the coming decade in return for new warships, planes and vehicles. At the same time a capability review led by Theresa May’s security adviser is looking at redrawing spending priorities in the wake of terrorist and cyber attacks.

Mark Sedwill is understood to believe it is more important to increase funding to fight cyber attacks than bolster the conventional Armed Forces.

Gavin Williamson, the new Defence Secretary, said he wanted another £2billion a year from the Treasury to stave off cuts, but his relations with the Chancellor have plummeted after a Cabinet row. Allies of Philip Hammond have likened Mr Williamson to the naive Dad’s Army character Pte Pike, while he has complained the Chancellor had not paid an internal bill for flying on MOD aircraft.

A cut to the corps, along with the potential scrapping of two amphibious warships, is one of a series of possible cuts proposed to hit savings targets.

Maj Gen Magowan wrote in The Globe & Laurel journal that he wanted to reassure troops “I am personally engaged in this review process and we have some of our best people working on it as I write”.

Reports of the proposed cuts were “speculation”, he said, but senior naval sources said the decision to keep Maj Gen Magowan in post underlined how seriously the issue was being taken.

After 18 months as the Commandant General, he had been due to be move to a senior job at Navy Command HQ. He wrote: “However, the First Sea Lord has asked me to continue to be Commandant General Royal Marines, despite moving to a new role, to ensure continuity at a time when capabilities are under review.”

♦ Mr Sedwill has warned that while countries like Russia pose a threat to Britain online, the more “immediate” danger comes from extremists and criminals. The remarks came at a Policy Exchange event in Washington DC, which saw Mr Sedwill share the stage for the first time with his US counterpart, HR Mcmaster.