Negotiations with the Treasury over public spending levels are always an uphill battle, the defence secretary has said, amid reports he is looking for up to an £11bn increase in defence spending.
Ben Wallace admitted soaring inflation was hitting the Ministry of Defence’s real-terms budget particularly hard, but dismissed suggestions he would resign if the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, refused to provide the increase he was looking for.
“I’ve been in this game long enough, I have been a minister for God knows how many years, but it’s always an uphill battle with the Treasury, no matter what department you’re in,” Wallace said on Wednesday.
He told Sky News: “It’s the right thing that the secretary of state will argue for an increase to meet their priorities. And of course, between now and the budget, I’ve got lots of time and lots of meetings with the chancellor to make sure that we try and come to a deal on it.”
Wallace said he had not hidden the fact defence suffers “from inflation pressures”, adding: “That’s spending on hardware and infrastructure because of course, that’s where inflation goes to but, you know, we’ll see.
“I am not going to conduct the negotiations in public, but obviously, we’re going to try and make our way through this so that between now and the next spending review, which is in two years time, we can insulate defence from many of those pressures.”
The Sunday Times reported that Wallace was looking for between £8bn and £11bn – the “cost of standing still”, one unnamed defence source was quoted as saying. But the same report quoted a senior government source as saying: “The number is extraordinarily high. The prime minister’s five priorities did not include an explicit commitment to defence funding.”
During his Wednesday morning interview, Wallace dismissed any suggestion he would resign if he did not get the money in the spring budget.
Asked about it, he said: “No, no. Let’s just go to the budget, OK? I think, first and foremost, the most important thing is that I present a good case to the chancellor, a good case to the prime minister … Then, we will see, you know, what I get at the end. But this is not about resigning or anything else: it’s about delivering defence to meet the threat.
“That’s my duty to the public, no matter what political party I am or anyone else. My successor will be the same; to be able to fund defence to protect us from the likes of Russia and other countries around the world.”
When pressed, Wallace said: “At this moment, I have to tell you, there’s an awful lot of speculation in the newspapers, most of it seems to be untrue.”
