Defence Secretary Ben Wallace 'asks Jeremy Hunt for £10bn'

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace ‘asks Jeremy Hunt for £10bn’ as fears grow over state of our overstretched military

• The defence ministry is facing huge demands for support for Nato and Ukraine
• Defence Secretary has asked Jeremy Hunt for extra £10billion over two years

The Defence Secretary has demanded up to £10billion extra for the Armed Forces, it has been claimed, amid concerns the military is severely overstretched.

Ben Wallace is said to have asked the Treasury for a major budget boost to meet the country’s spiralling military commitments.

Defence analysts have warned the military is in a ‘parlous’ state, as it faces huge demands for Nato and Ukraine support, budget shortfalls and mismanagement.

Some experts have even warned Britain may not be able to defend itself unless the Armed Forces secure a funding surge.

Mr Wallace has asked Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to commit the extra £10billion over the next two years, The Sunday Times reported.

Ben Wallace, pictured in Rome on February 9, is said to have asked the Treasury for a major budget boost to meet the country’s spiralling military commitments

The cash would only be enough to fulfil commitments and cover the cost of inflation on the Ministry of Defence’s £14billion-a-year kit budget.

But, ahead of next month’s Budget, Mr Hunt has stressed the Government must maintain a ‘disciplined approach’ on public spending to tame inflation.

It came amid reports in the German media, backed up by MoD sources, that Nato fears the UK will be unable to meet a commitment to take over its rapid-reaction force at the end of the year.

Nato’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) was deployed last February in Romania to thwart any Russian advance towards the alliance’s territory.

Germany, which currently leads the VJTF, was asked to remain in charge for an extra year as Britain cannot spare the 5,000 personnel required, it was claimed. 

‘There are serious problems with ammunition shortages and other kit, partly due to underspending – but also because of the amount of ammo and other ordnance we are supplying to Ukraine,’ an MoD source told The Mail on Sunday.

Britain committed £2.3billion to Ukraine for military support last year and Downing Street has said the same sum is ringfenced this year. 

Meanwhile defence analyst Francis Tusa said a simple ammunition shortage meant the UK ‘had to go and buy shells on the open market, often at high cost’.

Britain committed £2.3billion to Ukraine for military support last year. Pictured: Zelensky and Rishi Sunak meet with tank crews trained by members of the British Army on February 8

‘The British Army is broken,’ he said. ‘It doesn’t have the manpower to commit for a year to a mission such as VJTF. The resources, the numbers, the training, the equipment just aren’t there.’

He added: ‘The current state of the Army is so parlous that if the UK has to commit forces for intensive combat operations, such as those in Ukraine, they would be lacking the equipment, the ammunition and the training to be able to survive.’ 

A government spokesman said: ‘We are ready to honour our commitment to lead the VJTF in 2024. Any suggestion otherwise is completely untrue.’

Meanwhile the chairman of the Commons defence committee, Tobias Ellwood, said the UK was mistakenly still operating on a peacetime budget.

‘We’re still in denial,’ he told GB News. ‘Another Cold War has started, not on one front but on two fronts with Russia and China. Really we’re still on a peacetime budget – we’ve moved into a new era of insecurity.’

Source: Read Full Article