Of course Britain’s defence is safe with me, pledges defiant Shapps
GRANT SHAPPS today defends his appointment as Rishi Sunak’s new Defence Secretary in the face of mutterings from the Armed Forces by insisting that he is up to the job.
Mr Shapps, who has held five ministerial jobs in the past year, writes in today’s Mail on Sunday that his experience in departments such as Transport and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, and his time chairing Cobra and serving on the National Security Council, has equipped him to succeed veteran Ben Wallace.
When his appointment was announced as part of Rishi Sunak’s mini-reshuffle last week, Richard Dannatt, a former chief of the general staff of the British Army, said it would be a difficult brief for Mr Shapps because he ‘knows very little about defence – and it’s a complex portfolio’.
Mr Shapps writes that ‘though I might be new to defence, defence is in the DNA’, before citing how his family fled ‘persecution and pogroms’ at the end of the 19th Century, and his uncle and grandfather fought in North Africa in the Second World War.
Hailing the ‘Blitz spirit’ and the ‘dislike of bullies in the backyard’ which led the UK to offer trenchant support for Ukraine in its war with Russia – ‘Putin is losing’, he says – Mr Shapps promises to protect the defence budget.
He says: ‘We are upping our game. Next year, we will spend more than £50 billion on defence for the first-time in our history. And we have the largest defence budget in Europe.
‘In fact, this Government has committed to increase spending over the longer-term to 2.5 per cent of GDP as we improve our fiscal position and grow our economy.’
The reshuffle, which also saw fast-rising Claire Coutinho become Energy Secretary, came as MPs return to Westminster after the summer recess and the Prime Minister aimed to move on to the front foot by making changes in Downing Street.
Jamie Njoku-Goodwin, a Health Department adviser at the height of the Covid crisis, was appointed director of strategy, while trusted long-standing aide Nerissa Chesterfield is the PM’s new director of communications.
Mr Sunak wants his political operation to be ‘fighting fit’ for a challenging autumn, which will include the by-election in Mid Bedfordshire forced by the resignation of Nadine Dorries.
The Tories could also face a by-election in Tamworth, Staffordshire, where sitting MP Chris Pincher is expected to lose his appeal against an eight-week Commons suspension for assaulting two guests at the Carlton Club.
RISHI SUNAK faces a double by-election threat as Chris Pincher’s appeal is set to conclude this week.
The scandal that helped bring down Boris Johnson will reach its end as the parliamentary misconduct watchdog is expected to publish its verdict.
In July the former deputy chief whip appealed his eight-week suspension for assaulting two guests at the Carlton Club.
The Standards Committee found the MP’s conduct last year was ‘profoundly damaging’ and upheld allegations that Mr Pincher ‘groped’ two men.
Sources said they expected his appeal to be rejected. An eight-week suspension would automatically trigger a recall petition, allowing voters to remove him. However, one MP said they expected Mr Pincher to see ‘the game is up’ and resign, triggering a by-election.
Mr Pincher increased his majority in Tamworth, Staffordshire, to 19,634 in the last election. Sources said the Government might try to schedule the by-election on the same date as Nadine Dorries’ seat, Mid Bedfordshire. She sensationally resigned her Commons seat last week through The Mail on Sunday.
The former Culture Secretary launched a scathing attack on Mr Sunak in her resignation letter, accusing him of betraying Conservatism by raising taxes.
Yesterday Michael Gove became the latest voice urging the Government to change its direction of tax policy.
The Levelling Up Secretary said the Government was not doing enough for young people and that it must ‘think about how we tax’. He told the Financial Times’s Political Fix podcast that wealth inequality had ‘worsened’.