London, (Parliament Politics Magazine) – “Neither defence nor peace come cheap” – Government must stick to it’s pledges on defence spending, says the Rt Hon Mark Pritchard
As part of the Government’s reset of the mini budget, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, has rightly called for government departments to find new efficiency savings. But should the Ministry of Defence be the exception?
Yes and no. Clearly, efficiency savings should be looked at in all government departments, but over a ten year period the MOD is already projected to deliver £20 billion of efficiency savings. Those efficiencies are being delivered by renegotiating old PFI contracts, reconfiguring MOD manpower and estates, retiring the C130J early, and cancelling the Warrior upgrade and other lesser-known programmes.
That is not to say further MOD efficiencies cannot be found, but in a world less safe now than it was just twelve months ago, our Armed Forces cannot be asked to do more without the commensurate funding to deliver them.
With a hot and protracted war in Ukraine, rising tensions in the Balkans, a volatile Asia-Pacific region, a belligerent China, and with the continual menacing of North Korea; the Government must ensure UK defence is sufficiently resourced to meet the threats of today and tomorrow.
One of the many challenges for UK defence is how modern warfare is being waged on and off the conventional battlefield. Whether though unmanned aerial platforms, space, cyber, or the weaponisationof disinformation, the 21st Century threat landscape is multi-layered and rapidly changing, often with shorter product life cycles. This is a huge challenge for the MOD’s procurement strategy. Whether on land, sea, air, space or in the subterranean battlespace, threats are increasingly deniable, asymmetric, and able to deliver a high kinetic punch for a comparatively low cost.
The UK must continue to lead by example. As a leading member of NATO and at the vanguard of the international effort to give Ukraine the arms it needs to defend itself from Russia’s illegal invasion, the UK cannot take budgetary decisions which might be perceived as slowing the pace of that support. As the Prime Minister rightly said: “Ukraine can win, Ukraine must win, and Ukraine will win”. But that means the MOD must continue to give Ukraine the training and kit to finish the job.
Moreover, any diminution of that effort would be a false economy. Unless Ukraine wins the war, whatever winning might eventually look like, Putin will be emboldened to continue his aggression and expansionism elsewhere, with a greater financial and human cost to Ukraine, the UK and the rest of Europe.
The Treasury also needs to avoid unintended consequences for other NATO member states. At a time when the Defence Secretary has rightly called for NATO members to increase their defence spending and share more of the NATO burden, any perceived budgetary backsliding by the UK on its commitment to increase the defence budget to 2.5% by 2026 and 3% by 2030 would undermine a long argued for rethink about which NATO member states need to do more.
Defence also has its part to play in the Government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda. Unlike other parts of the government sector, the defence footprint, both uniformed and civilian personnel, are found in every region of the country. The same is true of the private sector: in defence engineering, manufacturing, research and development, special projects, cyber and much more.
Moreover, as a former Foreign Secretary with oversight of GCHQ and the Secret Intelligence Service, the Chancellor will be very familiar with the need to ensure the UK’s defence capabilities meet extant and future national security threats. He will also know how UK defence capabilities add considerable weight and leverage to the discharge of UK diplomacy around the world – something likely to go unreferenced in the revised Integrated Review which is highly likely to recognise the need for more,not less, defence spending.
With fiscal pressures on governments across Europe, the Chancellor is right to seek efficiency savings, but neither defence nor peace come cheap; as the conflict in Ukraine has shown, both are incontrovertibly linked.
As the Defence Secretary told the House of Commons this week, the UK must “mean what wesay”.
The Rt Hon Mark Pritchard MP has been MP for The Wrekin since 2005