Armed Services ‘are on a road to disaster’

Ex-Navy chief’s warning amid fears of £1billion cuts

BRITAIN’S defence is ‘balanced on a knife edge’ and will reach crisis point unless more money is found, a former head of the Royal Navy has claimed.

Warning of the crippling impact of further cuts to the Armed Forces, Admiral Lord West said the UK was on the ‘road to disaster’.

He said Britain was becoming a foreign policy ‘irrelevance’ and accused David Cameron of ‘not practising what he preaches’.

His comments came as it emerged that the Ministry of Defence has been told to slash £1billion from the annual defence budget of £36.5billion in a move that could hit operations overseas. The department has already suffered devastating cuts. It is understood that Chancellor George Osborne is seeking to cut the budgets of most government departments by 5 per cent this year.

As a result, the Treasury has told departments – with the exception of health, education and international development – to f i nd savings totalling £3billion or more before the Budget in July.

The move has infuriated military chiefs and will anger many Tory MPs, who have repeatedly called for the Prime Minister to commit to spending 2 per cent of national income on defence in line with the Nato target. Analysts say cutting the defence budget to such a degree would mean the UK would be likely to fall short of the target and this would reduce Britain’s standing on the world stage.

Lord West, a former first sea lord and Labour security minister, said: ‘We must not delude ourselves. We are at a turning point. Unless more money is found for defence, defence is in a crisis.’

Addressing the Lords, he said it was a ‘national disgrace’ that the Royal Navy only had 19 escort ships and called for the Government to stand true to its word and order the 13 planned Type 26 frigates now. ‘We are balanced on a knife edge,’ he said. ‘Without an increase in defence spending we are on a road to disaster. The Navy and the other military forces will not be able to do what the nation expects of them.’

Mr Cameron has already promised not to slash regular troop numbers and has committed to renewing the Trident nuclear deterrent.

Finding £1billion of defence cuts could therefore prove difficult, and analysts have warned t hat operations overseas could become strained.

Lord West said: ‘We have military capability – but we are losing it so their input will become irrelevant in key global decision making.’

This week the Government announced that it would undertake a strategic defence and security review, which will determine the future strength of the Army, Navy and RAF. The Queen’s Speech said the UK would ‘build on the enormous progress’ made since 2010.

But Lord West said that since the last review in 2010 there had been an approximate 9.5 per cent reduction in defence spending. Research showed this cut our military capability by around 30 per cent.

Lord West said: ‘In other words, it has had a catastrophic effect on our defence capability.’

In September Mr Cameron called on all Nato countries to commit to spending 2 per cent of national income on defence. Lord West said: ‘It was positive stuff, but I am not sure that [he] intends to practise what he preaches.’

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: ‘We are confident that we will spend 2 per cent of GDP on defence in this financial year.’

A Treasury spokesman said: ‘We are asking departments to identify options. There is no savings target for 2015-16.’

We must not delude ourselves. We are at a turning point. Unless more money is found, defence is in a crisis Admiral Lord West