The UK’s new chancellor has raised the possibility of ditching a key pledge by Liz Truss to boost defence spending – a move that would likely be a resigning matter for her defence secretary, Ben Wallace.
Jeremy Hunt on Saturday refused to commit to lifting the amount of money spent on the armed forces to 3% of national income by 2030, as promised by the prime minister.
He also said the Ministry of Defence, like all other departments, would have to make additional savings.
Mr Wallace, one of the most experienced and well-regarded members of the embattled prime minister’s cabinet, has fought hard over the past three years to secure much-needed increases in defence spending at a time of growing security threats.
Asked whether any backtracking on defence spending goals would be a resigning issue, a defence source said Mr Wallace would hold the prime minister to the pledges made.
This includes a commitment to increase defence spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2026 from around 2% at present and then to 3% of GDP by 2030 in what would equate to around an extra £157billion over eight years.
But speaking about tough times ahead, Mr Hunt told Sky News: “I’m going to ask all departments to find more efficiencies than they were planning to find.”
More on Ben Wallace
Related Topics:
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
9:58
Hunt: There were mistakes
He repeated this on Radio 4’s Today programme and was asked specifically if a “difficult tough decision” would be taken over the defence budget.
Mr Hunt replied: “We do need to increase defence spending, but I can’t make a promise to you here and now about the timings of that.”
Advertisement
He continued: “The long-term ability to fund an increase in defence spending will depend on stability in the economic situation and a healthily growing economy.”
Pressed on how he was leaving open the possibility of the 3% defence spending pledge not being delivered by 2030, Mr Hunt said: “I am leaving open all possibilities this morning. I wish I could give you more detail, but I will be presenting to parliament in a fortnight on Monday exactly what is going to happen and the answer to all those questions.”
He was referring to 31 October when the chancellor is due to issue a fiscal statement.
Image: Liz Truss and Ben Wallace around the cabinet table
As well as a failure to commit to defence spending, Mr Hunt also made a flawed assessment that long-term defence spending can only be secured if there is economic stability.
In reality, there can be no economic stability without security.
The energy price rise – as the prime minister keeps saying – is caused by Vladimir Putin using energy as a weapon, reducing the flow of Russian oil and gas to pressure Western nations to stop their crucial support to Ukraine, which has helped thwart his invasion so far.
Had the Conservatives – and Labour before them – genuinely demonstrated the mantra that national security is their first priority the UK would not have seen successive governments slash defence spending and military capability over the past three decades.
NATO allies less likely to invest in defence if UK doesn’t
Hollowed out defences – and this is a simplification of a time that also included the disastrous Iraq and Afghanistan wars – have left the UK and fellow European NATO allies less able to deter the existential threats posed by authoritarian regimes like Russia’s.
So, it makes no sense to use the economic crisis, triggered in part by Russia’s war in Ukraine, as a reason to backtrack on a vital need to rebuild the UK’s armed forces.
Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping of China, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and all other leaders who prefer authoritarian rule over the values of democratic governments – human rights, rule of law and other freedoms – will be laughing.
Britain is one of the strongest voices in NATO, urging increased defence spending among all 30 allies – it is a live debate right now, with hopes to lift a minimal expenditure target to 2.5% of GDP from 2%.
If the UK were to lead by example and reduce ambitions to grow defence spending, it would make it far less likely other European allies will feel under pressure to boost their budgets.
The MoD has a largely poor track record of procurement, with programmes to build warships, aircraft and tanks too often running billions of pounds over budget and delivered late or not at all. That is inexcusable and also needs to change.
But ordering more efficiencies is going to make a bad situation even worse.
Many people have tried and failed to make the MoD and the armed forces more efficient.
The thing is, the UK’s military, security and intelligence services are too vital to fail and too important not to fund adequately, especially at a time of war in Europe, and the very real threat of escalation with Russia and China.
Heathrow Airport bosses had been warned of a potential substation failures less than a week before a major power outage closed the airport for a day, a committee of MPs has heard.
The chief executive of Heathrow Airline Operators’ Committee Nigel Wicking told MPs of the Transport Committee he raised issues about resilience on 15 March after cable and wiring took out lights on a runway.
A fire at an electricity substation in west London meant the power supply was disrupted to Europe’s largest airport for a day – causing travel chaos for around 200,000 passengers.
“I’d actually warned Heathrow of concerns that we had with regard to the substations and my concern was resilience”, Mr Wicking said.
“So the first occasion was to team Heathrow director on the 15th of the month of March. And then I also spoke to the chief operating officer and chief customer officer two days before regarding this concern.
“And it was following a number of, a couple of incidents of, unfortunately, theft, of wire and cable around some of the power supply that on one of those occasions, took out the lights on the runway for a period of time. That obviously made me concerned.”
Mr Wicking also said he believed Heathrow’s Terminal 5 could have been ready to receive repatriation flights by “late morning” on the day of the closure, and that “there was opportunity also to get flights out”.
However, Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye said keeping the airport open during last month’s power outage would have been “disastrous”.
There was a risk of having “literally tens of thousands of people stranded in the airport, where we have nowhere to put them”, Mr Woldbye said.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Another 23 female potential victims have reported that they may have been raped by Zhenhao Zou – the Chinese PhD student detectives believe may be one of the country’s most prolific sex offenders.
The Metropolitan Police launched an international appeal after Zou, 28, was convicted of drugging and raping 10 women following a trial at the Inner London Crown Court last month.
Detectives have not confirmed whether the 23 people who have come forward add to their estimates that more than 50 other women worldwide may have been targeted by the University College London student.
Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth said: “We have victims reaching out to us from different parts of the globe.
“At the moment, the primary places where we believe offending may have occurred at this time appears to be both in England, here in London, and over in China.”
Image: Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth
Zou lived in a student flat in Woburn Place, near Russell Square in central London, and later in a flat in the Uncle building in Churchyard Row in Elephant and Castle, south London.
He had also been a student at Queen’s University Belfast, where he studied mechanical engineering from 2017 until 2019. Police say they have not had any reports from Belfast but added they were “open-minded about that”.
“Given how active and prolific Zou appears to have been with his awful offending, there is every prospect that he could have offended anywhere in the world,” Mr Southworth said.
“We wouldn’t want anyone to write off the fact they may have been a victim of his behaviour simply by virtue of the fact that you are from a certain place.
“The bottom line is, if you think you may have been affected by Zhenhao Zou or someone you know may have been, please don’t hold back. Please make contact with us.”
Image: Pic: Met Police
Zou used hidden or handheld cameras to record his attacks, and kept the footage and often the women’s belongings as souvenirs.
He targeted young, Chinese women, inviting them to his flat for drinks or to study, before drugging and assaulting them.
Zou was convicted of 11 counts of rape, with two of the offences relating to one victim, as well as three counts of voyeurism, 10 counts of possession of an extreme pornographic image, one count of false imprisonment and three counts of possession of a controlled drug with intent to commit a sexual offence, namely butanediol.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
3:16
Moment police arrest rapist student
Mr Southworth said: “Of those 10 victims, several were not identified so as we could be sure exactly where in the world they were, but their cases, nevertheless, were sufficient to see convictions at court.
“There were also, at the time, 50 videos that were identified of further potential female victims of Zhenhao Zou’s awful crimes.
“We are still working to identify all of those women in those videos.
“We have now, thankfully, had 23 victim survivors come forward through the appeal that we’ve conducted, some of whom may be identical with some of the females that we saw in those videos, some of whom may even turn out to be from the original indicted cases.”
Mr Southworth added: “Ultimately, now it’s the investigation team’s job to professionally pick our way through those individual pieces of evidence, those individual victims’ stories, to see if we can identify who may have been a victim, when and where, so then we can bring Zou to justice for the full extent of his crimes.”
Mr Southworth said more resources will be put into the investigation, and that detectives are looking to understand “what may have happened without wishing to revisit the trauma, but in a way that enables [the potential victims] to give evidence in the best possible way.”
The Metropolitan Police is appealing to anyone who thinks they may have been targeted by Zou to contact the force either by emailing survivors@met.police.uk, or via the major incident public portal on the force’s website.
An 11-year-old girl who went missing after entering the River Thames has been named as Kaliyah Coa.
An “extensive search” has been carried out after the incident in east London at around 1.30pm on Monday.
Police said the child had been playing during a school inset day and entered the water near Barge House Causeway, North Woolwich.
A recovery mission is now said to be under way to find Kaliyah along the Thames, with the Metropolitan Police carrying out an extensive examination of the area.
Image: Barge House Causeway is a concrete slope in North Woolwich leading into the Thames
Chief Superintendent Dan Card thanked members of the public and emergency teams who responded to “carry out a large-scale search during a highly pressurised and distressing time”.
He also confirmed drone technology and boats were being used to “conduct a thorough search over a wide area”.
He added: “Our specialist officers are supporting Kaliyah’s family through this deeply upsetting time and our thoughts go out to all those impacted by what has happened.”
More from UK
“Equally we appreciate this has affected the wider community who have been extremely supportive. You will see extra officers in the area during the coming days.”
On Monday, Kerry Benadjaoud, a 62-year-old resident from the area, said she heard of the incident from her next-door neighbour, who “was outside doing her garden and there was two little kids running, and they said ‘my friend’s in the water'”.
When she arrived at the scene with a life ring, a man told her he had called the police, “but he said at the time he could see her hands going down”.
Barge House Causeway is a concrete slope that goes directly into the River Thames and is used to transport boats.
Residents pointed out that it appeared to be covered in moss and was slippery.