Ex-Navy chief saddened by budget

The “hollowing out” of Britain’s military is getting extremely dangerous – and it is “quite extraordinary” that defence did not feature in the Autumn Budget, a former head of the Royal Navy has said.

Labour peer, Admiral Lord West of Spithead, said he was “deeply saddened” and very disappointed at the lack of mention of defence by the chancellor.

He warned how the drive for efficiency savings, being made across the military, is causing day-on-day damage to the country’s Armed Forces.

Lord West said: “They will all mouth platitudes about how the most important thing for any government is the defence and security of the nation.

“And yet nothing that he (Philip Hammond) said... actually mentioned the Armed Forces or the police at all, and I find that quite extraordinary .... I was saddened, I was deeply saddened.

“I had hoped that the new Secretary of State for Defence might have been able to put some pressure on to make him realise that the hollowing out of the Armed Forces is getting extremely dangerous.”

But Sir Malcolm Rifkind, who was defence secretary between 1992 and 1995, said it would be “premature in this particular budget” for defence announcements to be made, before the security review currently being carried out by Mark Sedwill is completed.