Tories ‘are shilly-shallying around’ on defence spending
A DEFENCE minister has insisted the Conservatives would properly fund the Armed Forces amid accusations the party has “gone soft on defence”.
Junior minister Harriett Baldwin also faced claims that the Tories were “shilly-shallying around” with defence spending and failing to hit Nato’s spending target of two per cent of GDP.
The comments came during a debate at the Royal United Service Institute (Rusi), amid ongoing concerns about recruitment and retention in the military.
They follow a recent analysis by The Times, which found a multi-billion pound funding gap in the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) plan for new equipment, that has been further impacted by the fall in the value of the pound.
Speaking in London, Ms Baldwin said the Government was putting “more money” into defence and the budget “is now growing again”.
“The equipment budget that we’ve put into this manifesto is some £18bn large,” she said.
She added that while the pound is “slightly lower” than it was at the MoD’s last strategic review in 2015, this was offset by a programme of hedging currencies over the next three years.
“I’m not denying the fact that we do need to continue the programme of efficiencies that we have outlined and has very much been something that the whole of the Armed Forces have been engaged with,” she said. “That money, the savings, are 100 per cent ploughed back into this ambitious equipment programme.”
Asked if there would be another strategic review should the Tories be re-elected, Ms Baldwin said it was “not something that’s in the manifesto”. However, she added that she hopes to see one “on this regular cycle”.
Speaking at the same event, Shadow Defence Secretary Nia Griffith said a new review of defence spending was “essential”.
She added: “What we’ve seen recently is the Conservative Government moving the goalposts, including things like pensions, which we didn’t include in 2010.
“We need to spend at least two per cent on defence, not shillyshallying around like the Conservatives have done, going down to 1.9 per cent and trying to put in other bits and pieces to try and pretend that it’s two per cent.”
Another speaker, the former Royal Marine James Glancy, accused the Tories of becoming “weak on defence”.
The equipment budget (in) this manifesto is some £18bn large. Junior Minister Harriett Baldwin.