Defence ministers clash in battle of the egos

There’s nothing Mr S likes more than a clash between two monumental ministerial egos. And they don’t come much bigger than Ben Wallace, the Forces’ Flashheart, and Johnny Mercer, the veteran thorn in No. 10’s backside. Both men serve in posts at the Ministry of Defence: Wallace as Secretary of State and Mercer in a junior role but still attending cabinet. But in recent weeks the pair have had something of a difference of opinion on defence spending.

First, there was a brief skirmish at the end of January when Mercer said that Wallace’s claims that Britain’s defence capabilities have been ‘hollowed out’ were ‘fundamentally not true’ and a ‘little bit disingenuous to the Prime Minister.’ And then yesterday Mercer told LBC that:

Ben is engaged in a lobbying effort for his department, as you would expect him to be. The facts are that when I came into politics, defence spending was around £38bn per year – it is just shy of £50bn a year now.