Treasury threatens Defence cuts again
Treasury prepares fresh barrage of military cutbacks
BYLINE: Tim Ripley; Mark Hookham
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 17
LENGTH: 393 words
MILITARY chiefs have been warned by the Treasury to expect further swingeing defence cuts after the next election, sources revealed this weekend.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is braced for cuts of about 7.5% between 2016-17 and 2020-21 as part of a renewed austerity drive, according to several well-informed sources.
The prospect of another budget squeeze has raised fears the army, already at its lowest level since Napoleonic times, will be slashed below 82,000 regular troops.
It is likely to anger senior officers who believe David Cameron gave a commitment in 2010 to increase the defence budget after the election. Ministers have subsequently committed only to an annual 1% increase for equipment, which is about 40% of the total budget.
General Lord Richards, the former chief of the defence staff, said further cuts would "make a mockery" of the prime minister's vow to defeat Isis, the terror group also known as Islamic State.
"If this report is true, I have confidence in the PM to reject the Treasury's intentions," he said. "Not to do so would make a mockery of his own previous public determination to see defence expenditure rise after the next election as well as recent pronouncements to do anything that is required to defeat and 'destroy' Isis. This is the start of a battle with HMT [Her Majesty's Treasury]."
A team of Treasury officials is believed to have visited the MoD two weeks ago and informed senior military figures and civil servants of the likely "spending horizon" after the election, defence sources claim.
The Treasury officials are said to have warned that, unlike the NHS, the MoD is unlikely to have its total budget ring-fenced, which means it faces a cut of about 7.5% over the next parliament, equivalent to a reduction of at least £2bn.
Senior officers were said to have been left "shellshocked" by the news and morale in the department is understood to be low. "They know they are in the firing line for another round of cuts," said one Whitehall source. Until now the MoD was planning on a tiny real terms annual increase in the defence budget of about 0.4% after the election.
The MoD said: "We do not recognise this story. We have regular discussions with HMT on a range of defence budget issues, but there has not been a specific briefing on the defence budget beyond 2015-16, nor have we been set a savings target by HMT."
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