Rishi Sunak says defence deal for Tempest means ‘outpacing those who seek to do us harm’
Britain will work to develop next-generation fighter jets with Italy and Japan, Rishi Sunak has announced.
The prime minister said the defence partnership will ensure the UK and allies are “outpacing and outmanoeuvring those who seek to do us harm”.
Continue reading...Party also questions whether troops would ‘bail out failing services rather than provide emergency back-up’
Labour has complained that the British army is being used to “bail out failing services” in the UK, at a time when the threat from Russia remains acute and British forces are being withdrawn from Estonia.
John Healey, the shadow defence secretary, has written to the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, to warn that troops “may be diverted from essential defence tasks” to plug staffing gaps caused by strikes in Border Force, the NHS and elsewhere.
Continue reading...UK defence minister says government still plans to spend 3% of GDP on defence by 2030
The UK’s armed forces minister, James Heappey, has suggested he would resign if the prime minister did not fulfil her leadership promise to raise defence spending, after the new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, said no department would be immune to cuts.
Hunt said the full reversal of Liz Truss’s economic plans meant “decisions of eye-watering difficulty”, and suggested nothing was off the table, including defence and health spending and the pensions triple-lock.
Continue reading...Former and serving pilots told not to disclose sensitive information, in attempt to ‘mitigate risk’ of schemes
British defence intelligence is to issue a rare “threat alert”, warning that China’s military is trying to recruit serving and former RAF jet pilots to help train its own air force with generous recruitment packages.
Officials expressed “concern and disapproval” of these schemes because they posed “a threat to UK and western interests”. Although they are not explicitly banning pilots from providing training, they aim to take steps to “manage the risk”.
Continue reading...UK spy chief says Kremlin does not appear to be engaged in preliminary steps despite Putin’s threats
The head of GCHQ has said the UK spy agency has not seen any indicators that Russia is preparing to use a tactical nuclear weapon in or around Ukraine despite recent bellicose statements from Vladimir Putin.
Jeremy Fleming, speaking on Tuesday morning, said it was one of GCHQ’s tasks to monitor whether the Kremlin was taking any of the preliminary steps needed before a tactical weapon was being made ready.
Continue reading...Article by Tory hopeful arguing NHS ‘cannot be put on pedestal’ shows she fully backed 2009 cost-cutting pamphlet
Liz Truss personally supported cuts to the NHS, arguing the service “cannot be put on a pedestal” in an article in which she also criticised the “inexorable” rise in doctors’ pay.
The newly emerged opinion piece was written by Truss to support a thinktank report she co-authored that called for patients to be charged for GP appointments and doctors’ pay to be slashed by 10%.
Continue reading...Emails disclosed by lawyers for two families of victims suggested police told to ignore role of senior officers
“Political pressure” was applied in 2016 to narrow the focus of a military police investigation into allegations of summary killings by SAS soldiers in Afghanistan, according to a legal claim made in the high court on Tuesday.
An email disclosed to lawyers representing two families of Afghans killed by the SAS showed that the second in charge of the unit investigating the alleged war crimes, had told colleagues about demands being made from higher up.
An SAS officer, discussing the Saifullah family case in an email dated May 2011, asked whether there was an opportunity “to ‘nip’ this allegation before it becomes an official allegation and is fed into either the national or Isaf chain of commands in Kabul, attracting lots of scrutiny”.
Concern about the SAS tactics, techniques and procedures in Afghanistan were raised in 2011 by an external organisation, whose identity the MoD wants to keep secret, which warned that the British soldiers were using unlawful techniques to kill Afghans in cold blood.
Neil Sheldon QC, for the MoD, told the court that the government wanted disclosure of the organisation’s full evidence and name to be prevented by a public interest immunity certificate. The application, he said, was being made on “international relations grounds”.
The chief MoD lawyer acknowledged in an email sent in the run up to a previous hearing in early 2020 that the SAS explanations for the summary killings in 2011 “appear highly questionable, if not implausible, not helped by the practice of post-mission ‘cut and paste’ statements” and that the MoD should “review all incidents involving fatalities”.
His deputy suggested in another email that the UK should investigate “the conduct” of UK armed forces in Afghanistan and “the investigative and prosecutorial response of the RMP [Royal Military Police] and the SPA [Service Prosecuting Authority]”.
Continue reading...Inquiry not being ruled out after BBC reports on 54 allegedly suspicious killings by SAS unit in Afghanistan
A UK defence minister has hinted that the government is considering a further inquiry or review of a pattern of 54 allegedly suspicious killings by SAS soldiers in Afghanistan, reported in a BBC Panorama programme earlier this week.
James Heappey told MPs on Thursday morning that the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, “rules nothing out”, and that “he’ll be back in touch with the House very shortly to say how he thinks this might be further reviewed”.
Continue reading...Latest updates: prime minister tells Nato conference UK will spend 2.5% of GDP on defence by 2030
And in another interview Liz Truss refused to endorse Boris Johnson’s claim that “toxic masculinity” helped to explain Vladimir Putin’s conduct and that he would not have invaded Ukraine if he were a woman. Asked if she agreed, she told Times Radio:
[Putin is] clearly is capable of very, very evil acts ... I don’t pretend that I can conduct a psychological analysis on him, nor do I think it’s helpful ...
I think that both women and men are capable of terrible and appalling acts.
All of Ukraine that has been invaded by Russia is illegally occupied. And, ultimately, the Russians need to be pushed out of all of that territory, and certainly what we shouldn’t be doing as friends and allies [of Ukraine] ... is implying that there are any trade-offs or any bits of Ukrainian territory that could be traded away or compromised on.
It is realistic, and that is why we are supplying the extra lethal aid we’re supplying.
Continue reading...PM says mark will be reached by end of decade as UK needs to adapt to more dangerous world
Boris Johnson has said the UK will spend 2.5% of GDP on defence by the end of this decade, after a cabinet row over defence spending and claims the government would ditch a key manifesto commitment on the issue.
Speaking at the end of the Nato conference in Madrid, the prime minister said: “We need to invest for the long term in vital capabilities like future combat air, while simultaneously adapting to a more dangerous and more competitive world.
Continue reading...President Zelenskiy has urged G7 leaders to urgently send more heavy weapons to Ukraine to bring the war to an end before winter. But, as Dan Sabbagh reports, there is no clear resolution in sight
World leaders are gathering in Madrid today for the Nato conference, and one issue will loom above all else: the war in Ukraine. The conflict has been described as the biggest security challenge to the west since 9/11 and, alongside practical considerations of military aid, leaders are desperate to project an image of unity.
The Guardian’s Dan Sabbagh, who is in Madrid for the conference, has just returned from eastern Ukraine, where he witnessed the relentless shelling of Ukrainian troops. He talks to Michael Safi about a frontline that has come to resemble the battlefields of the first world war.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson and Liz Truss among those saying Ukraine war highlights potential Chinese threat to Taiwan
Boris Johnson and his ministers are going into the Nato summit with fresh warnings that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has shown the need for extra vigilance and caution over potential Chinese action against Taiwan.
Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, who is joining the prime minister at the Nato gathering in Madrid, was most explicit, calling for faster action to help Taiwan with defensive weapons, a key requirement for Ukraine since the invasion.
Continue reading...PM insists manifesto promise of above-inflation increase will be kept despite Downing Street ‘reality check’ briefing
Boris Johnson faces a potential rift with senior ministers and generals at the start of a vital Nato summit in Madrid, after Downing Street indicated it would ditch a key manifesto commitment on defence spending.
In a chaotic sequence of events, a senior government source said there needed to be “a reality check” on the pledge to increase the defence budget each year by 0.5% above inflation, only for Johnson to try to argue it would be achieved.
Continue reading...Defence secretary’s leaked letter to the PM warns of future shortfalls in military personnel and long range rocket artillery
Ben Wallace has reportedly written to the prime minister to call for the defence budget to be lifted to 2.5% of GDP by 2028, as newly released figures from Nato show the proportion spent by the UK has fallen for a second year running.
The defence secretary also called for increases in personnel numbers, despite recent cuts to the army, and warned of future shortfalls in naval and air force crews, as well as in long range rocket artillery.
Continue reading...Sonar and radio comms maker expected to be sold to Cobham, owned by private equity firm Advent, in £2.6bn deal
The UK government is set to wave through a £2.6bn takeover of a British defence manufacturer in a deal that will move a US private equity investor a step closer to controlling a significant supplier of nuclear submarine equipment.
Cobham has received the green light to take over Ultra Electronics, a FTSE 250 maker of systems such as sonar and radio communications used by navies and air forces, as well as civilian aircraft. Cobham was itself controversially taken over and broken up by US private equity investor Advent over the course of 2019 and 2020.
Continue reading...Ministry of Defence says Putin’s campaign in the east has lost momentum and has failed to make big gains in past month
Russia may have lost a third of the invasion force it sent into Ukraine as its offensive continues to struggle in the face of stiff resistance, British military intelligence has said.
In its latest assessment, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the Russian campaign in the east of Ukraine had “lost momentum” and was now “significantly behind schedule”.
Continue reading...Latest updates: Conservative Lee Anderson says people just need to be shown how to cook nutritious meals that cost less
Michelle O’Neill, Sinn Féin’s leader in Northern Ireland, has criticised the DUP for refusing to commit to backing the election of a speaker for the Northern Ireland assembly. (See 11.25am.) She said:
What we need to see is the positions filled - first minister, deputy first minister, all the ministerial positions filled, and let’s get down to doing business.
I don’t think it is good enough. It is not good enough for the people here that the DUP is holding society to ransom, punishing society, preventing the establishment of a speaker and an executive to actually respond to the things people are worried about.
Continue reading...PM says he will close loopholes that allow components to be smuggled via India for use by Russian military
Boris Johnson has said he will close loopholes to ensure UK exports to India cannot end up being used in Russian weapons, as he conceded the war in Ukraine could go on until the end of next year, and Russia could win.
Speaking in Delhi at the end of a two-day visit, the UK prime minister warned that Vladimir Putin was resorting to a “grinding approach” in Ukraine; and suggested the UK would help to “backfill” countries including Poland if they provided heavy weaponry such as tanks to Kyiv.
Continue reading...PM’s spokesperson denies move is escalatory as UK also trains Ukrainian troops in Poland to use anti-aircraft defences
• Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates
Boris Johnson has revealed that dozens of Ukrainian soldiers are training in the UK, learning how to use 120 British armoured vehicles before returning with them to fight in the war against Russia.
British forces are also training Ukrainian counterparts in Poland on how to use anti-aircraft missiles, the prime minister said, as he outlined further details of the UK’s military aid for Kyiv’s embattled forces.
Continue reading...Impostors posing as Ukrainian PM post new YouTube clip with Ben Wallace’s response to claim that arms have failed
The UK is running out of anti-tank weapons to send to Ukraine, the defence secretary appeared to tell Russian impostors posing as the Ukrainian prime minister, according to the latest video released by the pair.
Downing Street has said it believes Russian state actors were responsible for the hoax, in which an impersonator was put through for a video call with Ben Wallace about the situation in Ukraine.
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