MPs slam Cameron for defence spending cuts

The Commons Defence Select Committee said it rejected the Prime Minister’s assurance that Britain retains a “full spectrum” defence capability and warned the nation’s global influence could be at risk.

The hard-hitting report warned that without firm commitments to improved funding in the near future, UK politicians risk “failing” the country’s military.

The strength of criticism from a Tory-led committee is striking at a time when the UK is engaged in military action in Afghanistan and Libya and military chiefs have voiced concern over cuts.

Labour said the warnings would leave people dismayed and angry, and the party renewed calls for cuts made in the spending review – including thousands of troops being axed, an order for new Nimrod reconnaissance planes being cancelled and the early withdrawal of HMS Ark Royal and Harrier jump-jets – to be reviewed.

However Defence Secretary Liam Fox said the Labour government’s failure over 12 years to initiate a review had left the Ministry of Defence with a multibillion-pound deficit requiring “tough but necessary decisions”.

Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir David Richards also insisted that the UK would remain a “formidable force” on the world stage.

The Commons committee warned that the National Security Strategy unveiled with much fanfare last autumn was in danger of becoming no more than a “wish list” unless the necessary money was committed to deliver the future armed forces envisaged for 2020 and beyond.

October’s Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) outlined plans to cut the Army by 7,000 and the Royal Navy and RAF by 5,000 each.

Despite Dr Fox saying that equipment spending will increase by 1 per cent above inflation each year after 2015, MPs said they were “not convinced that, given the current financial climate and the drawdown of capabilities arising from the SDSR, UK armed forces will be able do what is asked of them after 2015”.

The report noted “mounting concern” that the military was falling below the minimum capacity needed to fulfil current commitments, let alone other tasks between 2015 and 2020, when Ministers accept there will be “capability gaps”. Plans to increase funding after 2015 were “government aspiration, not government policy”, they said.

Chairman James Arbuthnot said: “The Government appears to believe that the UK can maintain its influence while reducing spending in defence and at the Foreign Office. We do not agree. If the UK’s influence in the world is to be maintained, the Government must demonstrate in a clear and convincing way that these reductions have been offset by identifiable improvements elsewhere rather than imprecise assertions of an increased reliance on diplomacy and ‘soft power’.”

Dr Fox said: “We continue to have the fourth largest military budget in the world and the SDSR has put defence back on a stable footing with highly capable armed forces and certainty for our personnel and their families.”

General Richards, said: “We will remain capable of sustaining our operations in Afghanistan and Libya before re-balancing will give us the flexibility to maintain our ability to project power across our spheres of interest.”

But Shadow Defence Secretary Jim Murphy said: “The rushed defence review has been much criticised, but now those who were disappointed will be dismayed and the anxious will be angry.”