MoD chiefs axe free biscuits and tea at meetings
IT IS not just frontline forces facing deep cutbacks – the cash crisis engulfing UK defence chiefs is now so serious even tea and biscuits are off the menu at Whitehall meetings.
The Ministry of Defence is citing ‘escalating costs’ to justify scrapping ‘hospitality (refreshments and meals)’ at meetings at its imposing London HQ.
In a leaked memo, chief operating officer Nina Cope said only events involving ‘international delegations’ would be offered a drink or food.
The move emerged after reports last week that the military is facing a record funding black hole of up to £29billion and warnings that the Armed Forces would be unable to fulfil Nato obligations.
Britain also faced embarrassment last month over the test-firing failure of a Trident missile, part of the UK’s submarine-based nuclear deterrent being upgraded at a cost of up to £41billion.
There is also concern over the Army’s size falling to its lowest level since the Napoleonic wars.
Last night Labour former Defence Minister Kevan Jones heaped ridicule on the tea-and-biscuits crackdown.
‘Talk about rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic,’ he said. ‘Given the scale of the financial hole the Tories are leaving the MoD in, scrapping refreshments at Whitehall meetings really does take the biscuit.’
Hospitality cutbacks emerged days after MPs accused defence officials and Ministers of having no plans to pay for armoured vehicles, warships and jets – leaving Britain in an ‘alarming place’.
In a scathing report, the Commons Public Accounts Committee warned of the potential £29 billion gap between the MoD budget and the cost of future equipment.
The damning verdict emerged a day after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Budget failed to include a cash boost for the Armed Forces.
However, yesterday former Defence Secretaries joined senior military officers and war heroes to back the Daily Mail’s campaign for an immediate injection of money for the military.
In her memo, Ms Cope told staff that because of ‘escalating costs and expenses in delivering outputs’, the MoD had decided that ‘except for meetings with international delegations, all meetings, including off-site team meetings and external meetings, are to be held without hospitality (refreshments and meals)’. A source said the crackdown applied to coffee, tea, fruit and biscuits served at more than 100 meetings a week, and that even dispensing machines had not been refilled.
The source added: ‘The atmosphere is horrible. There is no money for anything and most departments now supply their own biscuits and coffee.
‘The same thing happened a decade ago. It is all about the contractors budget which they claim has been exhausted, so they are pulling back on their obligation.’
Privately, defence insiders have blamed a post-Covid pandemic increase in ‘face-to-face meetings’ for the rise in costs.
Last night a separate source said Defence Secretary Grant Shapps ‘has worked behind the scenes to get the best deal for the department. There was a real terms defence increase in the Budget’.
‘He has spoken widely that there will be a need for the West to increase its defence spending.’
An MoD spokesman said: ‘We are committed to delivering value for money. As part of our private finance initiative contract, limited refreshments are supplied by the contractor in a small number of meetings.’