Defence must be election priority like NHS and schools, Ben Wallace warns

DEFENCE must be prioritised like the NHS and schools to win the next election, Ben Wallace has warned.

Keeping the nation safe is now as “core task” after the invasion of Ukraine and must be seen as an election issue from now on, he said.

In a major pre-Budget intervention, Mr Wallace told Trending In The News it was his “last big battle” to win long-term funding for Britain’s armed forces and change the culture in Government that “no one votes for defence”.

He urged Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to lay the groundwork for a big cash injection in the years to come, saying security is having its “winter crisis” moment now.

Right now he wants to see help to get the forces through the next two years – to deal with soaring inflation and help fund Ukraine commitments.

But he refused to put a number on what that should go up to.

And he pointedly declined to say the PM “gets” that defence needs longer-term financial investment.

It came amid fresh doubts the Integrated Review into the UK’s national security will be finished before the Budget amid claims of deep rows in the Ministry of Defence.

Trending In The News has been told an internal battle is ongoing between chiefs who want to focus on the Navy and more high-tech equipment, and the army, who want to see troop cuts reversed and our boys properly equipped.

Speaking in Rome, Mr Wallace said the NHS and schools were still well-funded at the end of the Cold War, when spending on defence was at a high of 3 per cent of GDP.

He said: “History has shown we managed to have side by side a bigger defence spending budget, an NHS, a Department of Education.

“We need to change the culture where the whipping boy of the Treasury was always defence. Post Cold War, ‘get some more from defence, defence can keep on creeping in the bottom because no one votes for defence.’

“My last battle is going to try and change that culture.

“Defence is not a discretionary government task, it’s a core task of the state.”

And he hailed the backing from the PM’s predecessor but one, Boris Johnson, for signing off a “record-breaking defence settlement and recognised we needed to change.”

He pointed out: “Rishi supported that. Boris knows that we need a clear message come the election – that is for the Prime Minister and his Cabinet.

“Ultimately it comes down to a decision between what the Treasury has in its bank account, and what the Prime Minister and Chancellor choose as their priorities.”

He added: “I need people, come the next election, to recognise that defence is further up than it used to be.

“The world is more dangerous, it is going to head toward more conflict, more instability over the next 10 or 20 years.

“Post-Brexit even more so – diplomacy matters. Look at Ukraine.”

When asked if the PM and Chancellor get the value of spending more on defence, he replied: “Jeremy Hunt gets it, he said it in his leadership campaign. The one phrase was, no matter what it costs, we should fund defence more.”

In last year’s Autumn Statement former Health Secretary Mr Hunt gave the green light for more cash for the NHS and schools, despite tightening the belt in a bid to get the nation’s finances back on track.

But Mr Wallace says he hopes the Chancellor will use the March fiscal event to set the “direction of travel” for more cash after 2024/25 – when the next general election is scheduled for.

He added: “When there’s a winter crisis in the NHS, it gets more money.

“There’s now a global threat to Europe.”