While Westminster is consumed by the fallout from the Budget, I can reveal there is another major headache on the horizon for Keir Starmer – a new confrontation with the armed forces over defence spending.
I’m told there was an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday in the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in which the Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, and the three heads of the services sat down to discuss the defence investment plan, which governs day-to-day budgets after the recent Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR).
At one point the chiefs threw out all the civil servants and their military aides. Together they agreed to write an unprecedented letter to John Healey, the Defence Secretary, explaining that the SDSR is no longer deliverable on the current budget and that unless more funds are forthcoming, there will have to be another round of cuts to kit and personnel.
This looks like it is going to become something of a running sore for Downing Street
‘These meetings have become increasingly fraught,’ a senior source familiar with the discussions revealed. ‘A letter will be sent to John Healey expressing the united, unanimous view of the chiefs they can deliver the SDSR but need more money, more quickly. Or they can deliver an affordable force, but in that scenario SDSR ambition will have to be curtailed. And that will involve force cuts.’ General Sir Roly Walker, the Chief of the General Staff, is understood to have been particularly vocal.
The government has committed to spending 5 per cent of GDP on national security by 2035, with 3.5 per cent dedicated to core defence, but ever since Starmer made that commitment, military experts have pointed out that year-to-year budgets in the MoD remain stretched to the limit as a result of delays and cost overruns to procurement projects. These have hit the Army hardest.
One well-placed source said: ‘The Army has gone absolutely berserk. They’re in a terrible state.’ Earlier this week, the MoD announced they have paused the use of its Ajax armoured vehicles after 30 soldiers emerged vomiting and shaking from the vehicles after suffering noise and vibration during a military exercise on Salisbury Plain over the weekend.
It is understood that the letter has not yet been finalised or sent, but this looks like it is going to become something of a running sore for Downing Street and a fresh headache for the Treasury.
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