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UK defence secretary John Healey has unveiled plans for the “biggest defence shake up in 50 years” to make sure the UK is war ready.
Giving a speech to the Institute for Government (IfG) on Tuesday, Mr Healeyannounced a new command structure in the Ministry of Defence (MoD), as well as bringing an end to major defence reforms unveiled under the Conservatives.
The structural changes, which will include streamlining budgets, will ensure the department is “more concentrated on war-fighting readiness and on deterrence”, Mr Healey said.
The reforms “represent the biggest shake up of UK defence for over 50 years”, the defence secretary said, arguing they will help cut waste and reduce duplication, as well as ensuring that Britain is “buying better what our front line forces need”.
The announcement comes amid growing fears over European security after President Donald Trump announced his plan to sideline the continent by holding Ukraine peace talks directly with Mr Putin, amid wider pressure on the continent to step up its defence capabilities.
Speaking on Tuesday, Mr Healey said that investment in defence will be matched by reform of the sector, announcing plans for four senior leadership roles in the department to act as “clear points of accountability at every level within UK defence”.
A new national armaments director will also be responsible for a £20bn budget to “build and sustain our national arsenal, because at this time, we must rearm Britain”. That person will also be responsible for the UK’s defence industrial strategy to create more defence jobs and apprenticeships.
He also announced an end to the Levene Reforms, introduced by the Tories in 2012, arguing they “produced too much duplication, too much waste”.
Lord Levene’s 2011 Defence Reform report made 53 recommendations on how to transform the MoD into a leaner and more effective organisation that could better support the needs of the Armed Forces. But Mr Healey said “many recent failings” in the department can be traced back to the reforms.
“They produced too much duplication, too much waste. A system where only two out of 49 major defence projects are now on time and on budget”, he said.
Instead, Mr Healey announced the MoD will reduce the number of budget holders to four from 10, and will introduce three new “centrally determined financial budgets” – readiness, operations and investment.
“This is a government whose commitment to defence is unshakable. It’s the foundation for our plan for change, for the delivery of our government’s missions. We will match sustained investment with serious reform. It will mean growing the economy. It will mean a more muscular defence for a more dangerous world”, he said.
The plans comes amid growing pressure on European allies, including Britain, to spend more on defence following the election of President Trump in the US.
While the government has pledged to increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP, there are concerns from both military figures and the new US administration that it won’t be enough.
Ministers are preparing to publish a review of Britain’s defence capabilities, including setting out a pathway to defence spending hitting the 2.5 per cent target.
A crunch meeting is being held in Riyadh on Tuesday between Russia and the US, with secretary of state Marco Rubio leading an American delegation that will seek an end to the fighting in Ukraine.
Ukraine has not been invited to the talks and will not accept the outcome if Kyiv is not involved, Volodymyr Zelensky said. He will travel to Saudi Arabia this week, but his visit is unrelated to the talks.
Sir Keir, who is due to visit the US later this month, said any settlement would need to be a “lasting peace deal, not just a pause for Putin to come again”.
He said his proposal to put peacekeeping troops in Ukraine would require a US “backstop” to deter Russia from attacking Ukraine again after meeting with European leaders for emergency talks on the war.
“Europe must play its role, and I’m prepared to consider committing British forces on the ground alongside others if there is a lasting peace agreement”, the PM told reporters after the Paris meeting.
“But there must be a US backstop, because a US security guarantee is the only way to effectively deter Russia from attacking Ukraine again.”
