The defence secretary has announced emergency cuts to the UK military, including the Royal Navy’s two amphibious assault ships, a frigate and 31 helicopters.
John Healey has blamed the disputed £22bn black hole left in the finances by the Tories. However, the Conservatives have warned that the cuts have come because Labour refuses to spend 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence.
Mr Healey told MPs that Labour had “a dire inheritance” from the Tories in defence so needed to scrap six “outdated” defence projects which will save £500m over the next five years.
“We have begun to fix the foundations going forward,” he added. “For too long our soldiers, sailors and air staff have been stuck with using outdated equipment.”
The emergency statement caught MPs by surprise on Wednesday and has left doubts over whether the UK could take back the Falklands if they were invaded again.
The scrapping of HMS Bulwark and HMS Albion leaves the UK without any amphibious assault ships. In addition, the frigate HMS Northumberland is beyond economic repair and will be decommissioned along with two Wave-class tankers.
Mr Healey said that HMS Bulwark and HMS Albion had been “superficially retired” by Tory ministers “but kept on the books at a cost of £9m a year”.
The defence secretary said that the service chiefs had agreed to his “common sense decisions which previous governments had failed to take”. He added: “These will not be the last difficult decisions I will have to take.”
Thirty-one helicopters –14 Chinooks and 17 Pumas – are also to be permanently grounded. The UK’s replacement helicopter programme is still some years away. There were 294 helicopters in the armed forces last year.
Also going are the Watchkeeper MK1 drones, which cost around £5m each, but have been beset by issues and will be grounded.
However, Mr Healey did announce new retention payments for armed forces personnel who sign up for additional years of service.
He said: “I can announce today that I am introducing, from April, a new £30,000 retention payment for a cohort of tri-service aircraft engineers who sign up for [an] additional three years of service. This will affect and be open to around 5,000 personnel in total.
“And from January, a new £8,000 retention payment for army personnel who served four years, supporting 4,000 personnel each year for three years. So 12,000 troops in total.”
The government is currently conducting a strategic defence review and were unable to rule out further cuts. There have already been concerns that the size of the army will be reduced to 63,000.
Responding to a point of order from Tory shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge, Mr Healey refused to confirm if Storm Shadow missiles supplied to Ukraine by Britain have been used in Russia.
He told MPs: “At this point I am not able to go into any further operational details. He added: “We as a nation and government are doubling down on our support for Ukraine.”
Responding to the major defence cuts, Mr Cartlidge said: “We have heard it all! Labour calling itself the party of defence.”
He added: “They have refused to set a pathway to 2.5 per cent [of GDP on defence spending] and instead of a pathway we have cuts.”
He questioned why the decisions were being made before the strategic defence review has reported. He said: “Labour have made their choices and they own the consequences.”
Lib Dem defence spokesperson Richard Foord pointed out that the new Chinooks are not due to come in until 2027 and the medium helicopters to replace the Pumas unlikely to be ready until the start of the next decade.
He said: “I am not surprised the service chiefs agreed this. It is their job to salute and turn right.”
Former intelligence and security committee chair Sir Julian Lewis described the scrapping of the amphibious ships as “a black day for the Royal Marines”.
Former defence secretary Sir Gavin Williamson was one of a number of MPs to press for the old equipment to be offered to Ukraine to help in the war against Russia.
Meanwhile, leading defence think tank the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) said that the cuts underlined how tight the defence budget is.
Rusi’s military sciences director Matthew Savill said: “These are mostly capabilities that are approaching retirement anyway, have been at low levels of readiness or aren’t worth further refits or investment.
“But the fact that defence either can’t crew them, or is prepared to cut them to make very modest savings over five years in the current international environment is an indication of just how tight resources must be in the MoD right now.
“In particular, the defence review will be under pressure to set out the future role of the Royal Marines, how the navy will bring into service and sustain more escorts, which are the workhorses of the fleet; and the impact upon helicopter capacity and procurement.”
