Navy struggling to keep pace, says Mordaunt
Cabinet tension as minister warns of threat to UK while Shapps fails to set date to hit 2.5pc spending target
CABINET tensions over defence spending surfaced yesterday as Penny Mordaunt said Britain’s national interests were at risk unless the Royal Navy kept pace with nations such as Russia and China.
Ms Mordaunt, the Leader of the Commons and a former defence secretary and Tory leadership candidate, tweeted her warning above an image of an article chronicling the shrinking of the navy to a fraction of its size in the last century.
It came as Grant Shapps, the Defence Secretary, failed to set a date for hitting the Government’s target of increasing spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP, saying it would only be achieved “when economic conditions allow”.
It emerged earlier this month that the Navy is facing such a severe recruitment crisis that the Ministry of Defence (MOD) is planning to decommission two ships to free up sailors for a new fleet of frigates.
The fleet has been reduced from 232 ships including eight aircraft carriers in 1960 to 30 in 2022 including two new aircraft carriers.
Ms Mordaunt, an honorary captain in the Royal Navy Reserve and MP for Portsmouth North, said: “The Royal Navy and its partners must keep pace with the growing capabilities of other nations. If not, Britain’s interests cannot be secured.”
In an article for The Sunday Times, she added: “We must not just ask ourselves by how much Russia and China are increasing their fleets, but why.
“The future Royal Navy must be able to continue to secure our interests, which are entirely predicated on being able to thwart attempts to deny us access to the seas of certain parts of the world.”
Mr Shapps had been challenged about defence spending on the BBC’S Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show and urged to set a date for the 2.5 per cent target to be hit at a time when he has warned about rising global threats.
He said it was “comfortably” above 2 per cent of GDP – the Nato benchmark – but not at 2.5 per cent yet. “There is a trajectory upwards. I can’t give you the exact date because we’ve always said it’s as the economic conditions allow. But the point is we’re working to a plan,” he added.
Responding to Ms Mordaunt’s comments, Mr Shapps said: “I’m in a post where there are a lot of people with opinions and a lot of people who’ve been in the military and armed forces will often express them.”
He defended Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s decision to focus on tax cuts rather than increasing defence spending, arguing “people do want to see more of the money that they earn kept”.
Last week Mr Shapps made the case for increased Western defence spending, saying the UK was facing a “pre-war world”.
In a speech last Monday, he set out the risks posed by countries such as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea along with as terrorist groups, in an increasingly dangerous world. His speech was seen as a pitch for extra defence spending. Before taking on the defence brief, Mr Shapps had backed a level of spending in excess of the Government’s goal, arguing it should rise to 3 per cent.
Last week, Lord Dannatt, a former chief of the general staff, hit out at the shrinking of the Army which he said had reduced from 102,000 personnel in 2006 to 74,000 today and was still “falling fast”.
He drew parallels with the 1930s when the “woeful” state of the UK’S armed forces had failed to deter Hitler, saying there was “a serious danger of history repeating itself ”.
But Mr Shapps insisted the size of the army would not dip below 73,000 under the Conservatives. He said: “It’s not projected to go down to 50,000. It’s actually, specifically, to 73,000 plus the reserves.”