Tugendhat says its ‘upsetting’ that Jenrick used footage in campaign video of soldier he served with who died soon after

Published

8 months ago

October 2, 2024

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Conservative leadership hopeful Tom Tugendhat has said it is “upsetting” his rival Robert Jenrick used footage of a soldier he served with in Afghanistan, who died soon after, in a campaign video.

Mr Jenrick released a video on Monday arguing the UK needs to leave the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) because, among other reasons, he claimed it is forcing the SAS into “killing rather than capturing” terrorists for fear of detainees being released under European human rights law.

Footage of British soldiers shooting weapons featured in the video with their faces blurred.

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Mr Tugendhat, who is part of the final four standing to be Tory leader, said he knew one of the soldiers in the video from his time in the army in Afghanistan.

The former army officer, who served in Iraq as well, told BBC Newsnight: “What’s particularly upsetting is that video is using a piece of footage of some of the people I served with, one of whom there died shortly after that film was taken in an accident, and is not able to defend himself from the accusation that is effectively being levelled against him.

“I do not think we should be using footage of our special forces in operations.

“I would not put that video out. In fact, I’d pull it down.”

Mr Tugendhat, who was security minister in the previous Tory government, told Sky News on Tuesday Mr Jenrick’s comments about the SAS were “wrong” and showed a “fundamental misunderstanding of military operations and the law of unarmed conflict”.

He told Sky News: “I’m extremely concerned that such words should not be seen in any way to encourage people to take any action, other than to surrender to British forces when asked to do so.”

At a fringe event at the Conservative Party conference on Tuesday, he urged Mr Jenrick to not “comment on military matters you know nothing about”.

However, Mr Jenrick doubled down on his accusations, telling the conference he really meant what he said.

“I don’t want our human rights apparatus to be standing in the way of taking the right operational decisions for our national security, and for protecting the lives of the brave men and women who serve in our special forces,” he told Tory members.

Mr Jenrick’s team told Sky News a Telegraph interview with former defence secretary Ben Wallace from September 2023, which Mr Jenrick based his comments on, “speaks for itself”.

Entitled “Human rights laws are protecting terrorists”, Mr Wallace said that “because of international treaties such as the European Convention on Human Rights defence secretaries are being forced to choose between killing individuals, generally by drone, or leaving them to continue plotting”.

He said the UK was often “forced into taking lethal action” due to the “lunacy of being unable to render people across borders or arrest people in countries whose police forces are unacceptable”.

Mr Wallace did not directly say the European Court would set terrorists free if they were captured but said the issue was with rendition treaties – where international law meant missions that would require the extrajudicial transfer of a suspect from another country to the UK were blocked.

He said he dealt “with such cases” while he was defence secretary.

Wednesday is the final day of the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, which has seen the four remaining Tory leadership candidates put their case to MPs and members.

MPs will vote to cut the list down to two, then members will vote and a leader will be announced on 2 November.

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‘No doubt’ UK will spend 3% of GDP on defence in next parliament, defence secretary says

Published

2 hours ago

May 31, 2025

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'No doubt' UK will spend 3% of GDP on defence in next parliament, defence secretary says

There is “no doubt” the UK “will spend 3% of our GDP on defence” in the next parliament, the defence secretary has said.

John Healey’s comments come ahead of the publication of the government’s Strategic Defence Review (SDR) on Monday.

This is an assessment of the state of the armed forces, the threats facing the UK, and the military transformation required to meet them.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has previously set out a “clear ambition” to raise defence spending to 3% in the next parliament “subject to economic and fiscal conditions”.

Mr Healey has now told The Times newspaper there is a “certain decade of rising defence spending” to come, adding that this commitment “allows us to plan for the long term. It allows us to deal with the pressures.”

A government source insisted the defence secretary was “expressing an opinion, which is that he has full confidence that the government will be able to deliver on its ambition”, rather than making a new commitment.

The UK currently spends 2.3% of GDP on defence, with Sir Keir announcing plans to increase that to 2.5% by 2027 in February.

This followed mounting pressure from the White House for European nations to do more to take on responsibility for their own security and the defence of Ukraine.

The 2.3% to 2.5% increase is being paid for by controversial cuts to the international aid budget, but there are big questions over where the funding for a 3% rise would be found, given the tight state of government finances.

While a commitment will help underpin the planning assumptions made in the SDR, there is of course no guarantee a Labour government would still be in power during the next parliament to have to fulfil that pledge.

A statement from the Ministry of Defence makes it clear that the official government position has not changed in line with the defence secretary’s comments.

The statement reads: “This government has announced the largest sustained increase to defence spending since the end of the Cold War – 2.5% by 2027 and 3% in the next parliament when fiscal and economic conditions allow, including an extra £5bn this financial year.

“The SDR will rightly set the vision for how that uplift will be spent, including new capabilities to put us at the leading edge of innovation in NATO, investment in our people and making defence an engine for growth across the UK – making Britain more secure at home and strong abroad.”

Sir Keir commissioned the review shortly after taking office in July 2024. It is being led by Lord Robertson, a former Labour defence secretary and NATO secretary general.

The Ministry of Defence has already trailed a number of announcements as part of the review, including plans for a new Cyber and Electromagnetic Command and a £1bn battlefield system known as the Digital Targeting Web, which we’re told will “better connect armed forces weapons systems and allow battlefield decisions for targeting enemy threats to be made and executed faster”.

On Saturday, the defence secretary announced a £1.5bn investment to tackle damp, mould and make other improvements to poor quality military housing in a bid to improve recruitment and retention.

Mr Healey pledged to “turn round what has been a national scandal for decades”, with 8,000 military family homes currently unfit for habitation.

He said: “The Strategic Defence Review, in the broad, will recognise that the fact that the world is changing, threats are increasing.

“In this new era of threat, we need a new era for defence and so the Strategic Defence Review will be the vision and direction for the way that we’ve got to strengthen our armed forces to make us more secure at home, stronger abroad, but also learn the lessons from Ukraine as well.

“So an armed forces that can be more capable of innovation more quickly, stronger to deter the threats that we face and always with people at the heart of our forces… which is why the housing commitments that we make through this strategic defence review are so important for the future.”