Government won't hang around on Armed Forces review, Defence Secretary insists
The Defence Secretary has said the new Labour Government will not be "not hanging around" when it comes to reshaping the Armed Forces.
John Healey is in Washington for the upcoming Nato summit alongside Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
When asked by Forces News what his key priority was for the summit and why the defence review could not be pushed through, Mr Healey said the PM would announce and commission the defence review next week.
"It's not a great idea for me to get ahead of him, less than one week in the job," he said. "You'll get the detail you are looking for next week, so we are not hanging around, we are getting on with the job in government.
Mr Healey also said having the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary and himself in Washington together showed Labour was "getting on with the job".
"We are totally committed to Nato. Britain will be at the heart of Nato as it has been since we were at the heart founding it 75 years ago," he said.
Sir Keir had earlier stressed his commitment to increasing defence spending to 2.5%, but again refused to say when it would happen.
But the Prime Minister did confirm he would launch the Government's strategic defence review next week, with the preparatory work already undertaken by Mr Healey.
He said the review would set out the road map to achieving a 2.5% GDP spend on defence, as well as the defence posture of the UK and the capabilities needed.
However, James Cartlidge, who served as defence procurement minister in the previous Conservative government, has written to Mr Healey, asking him for "urgent clarity on Labour's defence spending plans".
"It's vital the Government sets a clear date by when it will deliver 2.5% of GDP on defence – otherwise we will have to conclude defence is not a Labour priority," he said.
Speaking to Forces News, new Armed Forces Minister Luke Pollard said the first step to achieving a 2.5% spend was to conduct the strategic defence review.
"We know that there are capability gaps across our Armed Forces," he said.
"We know that there are some difficulties in terms of the deployability of some of our forces, and that needs to be looked at as part of that defence review because, what we spend on defence, the 2.5% commitment that we have made, is important, but how we spend it is equally as important."
Mr Pollard said "the MOD hasn't always spent money as efficiently" as he would like and the new Labour Government wants to make sure it will "spend money with a greater focus on value for money, more focus on frontline forces".
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