Defence Secretary Ben Wallace could resign if Jeremy Hunt scraps defence spending boost
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.”
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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.”
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.
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.
Read more:
China remains biggest long-term security threat
Jeremy Hunt arguably more powerful than Liz Truss
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.
UK
Police rehearsed a knife attack scenario on a train line in March – here’s what went differently this time
British Transport Police held an emergency exercise for press officers in March, which ironically involved a stabbing on a train travelling south near Huntingdon.
In the training drill, the train stopped immediately between stations when a passenger pulled the emergency cord.
It took police 25 minutes to reach the train and casualties, far longer than the eight minutes in which Cambridgeshire firearms officers reached the scene at Huntingdon station.
Follow latest: ‘Nothing to suggest’ terror attack, police say
Chris Webb, a crisis communications expert who helped run the exercise, said: “People think if you pull the emergency cord on a train it stops immediately, but that’s not what happens these days.
“As soon as the driver knows there is a problem, he or she radios the line operator HQ and they discuss where to stop.
“The decision last night was to keep going to Huntingdon station, where it was much easier for armed police to get on.”
Forensic investigators at Huntingdon train station in Cambridgeshire
He added: “It must have been awful for passengers when the train kept going for another ten minutes or so.
“It’s always a balance. It might have prolonged the attack, but stopping in the middle of nowhere can mean the attack stops but it’s much more difficult for the emergency services to get there.”
Mr Webb, former head of news at Scotland Yard, said such exercises are held regularly by train operators.
A similar drill was carried out on the London Underground weeks before the 7/7 bombings in 2005.
“There are always lessons to learn but you cannot guard against everything.”
In the training exercise in March the suspect was a white man with mental health issues. He was shot dead by police.
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‘Two suspects are British nationals’
Read more:
What we know so far about the Huntingdon train stabbings
Eyewitness recalls horror attack on high-speed train
What happened in the Huntingdon attack?
Police triggered the Plato code to all emergency services in their initial response to the Huntingdon train stabbing, but that did not label it a terrorist attack.
Plato is called for a major incident where it’s thought a suspect is on the loose and has already, or is liable to, cause serious injury.
Plato does not denote a terror attack, though it is often used in terrorist incidents.
A forensic investigator on the platform by the train at Huntingdon train station in Cambridgeshire
In a Plato response paramedics, fire fighters and other first responders are sent to a safe rendezvous point while armed police go in and deal with the suspect.
Plato depicts a situation where unarmed responders are vulnerable and are kept back until it is safe to approach casualties.
There are exceptions and it’s understood the East of England Ambulance Service has a special Hazardous Area Response Team (HART) which was allowed to accompany armed police onto the platform where the two suspects were arrested last night.
Once other first responders were allowed in, Plato was called off – an important part of the operation.
Plato was called during the initial response to the Manchester Arena bomb attack in 2017, but the fire service was not told it had been called off for two hours and that meant its officers did not go in to help with the rescue.
A student has told how she thought she “was going to die” during a mass stabbing on board a high-speed train.
Amira Ostalski was travelling to London for a Saturday night out with her friend Vanessa on board the “very busy” 6.25pm Doncaster to King’s Cross LNER service.
She told Sky News correspondent Dan Whitehead they were “listening to music, just having a good time”, when “panic and chaos” broke out in her carriage, Coach G, between Peterborough and Huntingdon.
Follow latest: Moment train attack suspect was arrested pictured
“I see five rows ahead of us a guy in a white t-shirt just jumps out of his seat,” she said. “People are screaming, ‘he’s got a knife’…. I’m guessing he stabbed the person right in front of me.”
Ms Ostalski said she came within 2m of the attacker but only caught a glimpse of him adding: “He was just a black bearded guy wearing all black and a hoody.
Woman who saw attack on train at Huntingdon tells Sky News of her experience
“I didn’t see the knife he was holding. I’m guessing because it was already in the body or something.”
She said she “started running” and was “trying to calm everyone down” because there was a young boy, around six years old, who hid in the toilets with his mum.
“Everyone’s running. A guy next to me is holding his arm saying he’s been stabbed. He was running. I see people covered in blood,” she said.
“Everyone was shocked, everyone was terrified. People wanted to know what was going on, everyone’s pushing and shoving. Everyone’s getting trampled.”
Woman who saw attack on train at Huntingdon tells Sky News of her experience
Ms Ostalski said she heard some people crying on the phone “in tears and in shock, thinking they’re going to be stabbed”.
“It was horrific, it was really horrific because we had no idea where he was and the conductor who tried to stop him, he got stabbed as well.
“We felt that we were not safe because we were trying to get the train to stop but it wasn’t stopping.”
Route of the 6.25pm London North Eastern Railway (LNER) service between Doncaster and London King’s Cross
Ms Ostalski said she ran into the buffet car where she picked up a metal tray to protect herself and her friend.
“I was honestly so petrified. I thought in that moment it was the last time I was ever going to be alive. I thought I was going to die,” she said.
Read more:
Police rehearsed train knife attack scenario in March
What we know so far
Ms Ostalski said she saw the attacker again when the train was stopped at Huntingdon station by the door, holding a bottle in his left hand.
“He just looked so calm and I think that was the most terrifying thing,” she said.
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Armed officers were seen running along the platform at Huntingdon station towards the train carriages after multiple people were stabbed on board.
Moment of suspect’s arrest
Police declared a major incident and armed officers can be seen in video footage sprinting along the platform.
Ms Ostalski said she thought she and the other passengers were safe when the train was evacuated.
But when she reached the car park, she turned around and saw the attacker jump the fence and start coming towards them.
“I have to admit, the police came really quickly and managed to detain him,” she said.
“I saw them running then took the knife and he got tasered and fell right on the spot.”
Two men born in Britain have been arrested over the attack, which police do not believe was motivated by terrorism, but Ms Ostalski said she only saw one of them.
A total of 11 people have been treated in hospital for their injuries, while two people remain in a life-threatening condition.
Ms Ostalski said she finally found safety in a taxi but will remember the ordeal for the rest of her life.
“Honestly, I’m scared to sit on a train,” she added.
A passenger who witnessed a mass stabbing on board a high-speed train heading for London told Sky News he heard someone yelling: “They’ve got a knife. I’ve been stabbed.”
The witness, who gave his name as Gavin, said there were “extremely bloodied” people and police shouting “get down, get down!” as passengers scrambled to leave the train.
Ten people were taken to hospital – nine with life-threatening injuries – after the incident on the 6.25pm LNER train from Doncaster to London King’s Cross on Saturday.
Two people have been arrested and counter-terrorism police have been called in to join the investigation.
Sky News correspondent Gurpreet Narwan at the scene said some of the first-hand accounts were “quite terrifying”.
Armed police, transport police, air ambulances and paramedics all attended the scene. Pic: PA
“We are hearing about people trampling over each other. We are hearing about passengers hiding in the toilets,” she said.
Gavin said: “The armed police were pointing to the suspect as we came off the train.
“Police were shouting ‘get down, get down’!
“He (a suspect) was waving quite a large knife. They detained him. I think it was a Taser that got him down in the end.”
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The moment armed police arrive at the train
Emergency stop
Passengers had pulled the emergency cord, he said, which caused the train to make an unscheduled stop at Huntingdon, where armed police boarded.
Gavin added he saw someone moving through his carriage, and saying: “They’ve got a knife, I’ve been stabbed.”
“They were making their way through the carriage to get away from the suspects. They were extremely bloodied,” he added.
He says by the time the train stopped, “they were basically on the floor”.
“That person ended up collapsing on the floor. They were taken to an ambulance pretty much straight away,” he said.
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Major incident declared at Huntingdon train station – as it happened
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One passenger in an emergency mediwrap blanket walks to safety. Pic: PA
Chief Superintendent Chris Casey of British Transport Police said: “This is a shocking incident and first and foremost my thoughts are with those who have been injured this evening and their families.
“We’re conducting urgent enquiries to establish what has happened, and it could take some time before we are in a position to confirm anything further.
“At this early stage, it would not be appropriate to speculate on the causes of the incident.
“Our response is ongoing at the station and will be for some time.”
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