The Armed Forces Minister has warned that he will quit if Jeremy Hunt backs down on the Government’s defence spending pledge.
On Monday, the new Chancellor said that “eye-wateringly difficult” decisions were needed, as he tore up Liz Truss’s economic strategy.
Mr Hunt said that there will be more pain to come with a new squeeze on public spending when he delivers his full medium-term fiscal plan, along with updated economic forecasts by the Office for Budget Responsibility, on October 31st.
In response, Burnham-On-Sea MP James Heappey said that the Government still backs the defence spending target, but asked if he would quit in the face of a U-turn, he told LBC: “Yes. But no one has said that 3 per cent is not going to happen by 2030.”
“We need to be spending 3 per cent of our GDP on defence of our nation by 2030 because there is no prosperity without security.”
Mr Heappey later told Sky News: “That’s something that I believe must be delivered given the need to keep our nation safe given increasingly uncertain times.”
“If in the very immediate term there is a requirement to look at what we can do to help the Treasury out, that’s a discussion for the Chancellor to have with the Secretary of State. But I am confident that the Prime Minister and the Chancellor and the Foreign Secretary, and frankly everyone else around Government, understands the importance of investing in our nation’s Armed Forces and our defences at a time when the UK interest at home and abroad is under such threat.”
The Armed Forces Minister conceded that Liz Truss is in a perilous position as Prime Minister, saying she cannot afford to make any more mistakes.
Mr Heappey, who attends Cabinet, was asked by Sky News how many more errors Ms Truss can make. “I suspect given how skittish our politics are at the moment, not very many,” he said.
Pressed how many, he added: “I don’t think there’s the opportunity to make any more mistakes.”
However, Mr Heappey also came to the defence of Ms Truss, saying: “She’s very much our Prime Minister and for what it’s worth I think she’s doing a good job.”
He said that Ms Truss was forced into an about-turn on her mini-Budget because of the market turmoil that followed. “Absolutely. I don’t think anybody disputes that. It was forced upon her for two reasons,” he said. Mr Heappey said the Prime Minister had realised the mini-Budget had gone “too far and too fast” with a vast package of unfunded tax cuts.
He apologised “100 per cent” for the mini-Budget, which he said the Cabinet had backed.
