Downing Street Says » Defence Spending

Asked what the Prime Minister thought of the timing of the former defence chiefs comments, the PMS told the assembled press that he would let the Prime Minister’s that he had just made comments speak for themselves.

Put repeatedly that the Prime Minister should divide the Ministerial roles of Des Browne, the PMS responded by saying that Des Browne had given a comprehensive answer to that question on the Today programme. Des Browne had said that nobody could identify anything that he wasn’t doing as Defence Secretary that he should be doing.

Asked if the Prime Minister was concerned at all that the defence chiefs were directing their criticism personally at him, for not having sufficient regard for their concerns, the PMS reiterated that the Prime Minister had answered the question directly himself. The Prime Minister had a huge amount of regard for the armed forces and he knew that they did a fantastic job. The PMS added that the Prime Minister was determined that the armed forces got what they needed and this was why the Government had committed themselves to an extra £7.7billion for the Ministry of Defence in the last spending report.

Put that Lord Gilbert had commented on SKY that Des Browne’s response had made the situation worse by not taking into consideration what the original criticism was, the PMS replied that he had not seen the comments made by Lord Gilbert and therefore would not be commenting on them.

Asked whether the Prime Minister had any intention of meeting the former defence chiefs, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister had met with the former defence chiefs when they were serving in The Army. The PMS went on to say that the Prime Minister had a very good relationship with the current Defence Chief and he was sure that would continue.

In response to the question of whether the defence chiefs had made any of their comments to the Prime Minister in person, the PMS said that he did not want to comment on internal discussions that may have taken place.

Put that the Prime Minister had suggested in his television clip that there was a conflict between military funding and public service spending, the PMS said he would dispute that. The PMS reiterated that the Prime Minister was determined to ensure that the military had the resources they needed. The figures were increasing in real terms and there had been the longest period of continuous real term growth since the 1980’s

In response to the suggestion that spending was below inflation, the PMS said that spending was above inflation and in addition, if there was any operational spending resulting from activity in Iraq and Afghanistan it would be over and above the CSR settlement.

Put that the former Chief of Defence did not have a case, the PMS replied that that was not for him to comment on. There had been sustained real term increase and in addition there was significant operational requirement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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» Friday, November 23, 2007

Defence Spending

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