When a Minister chooses to resign or is, shall we say, ‘persuaded’, is it is most usually for breaking accepted codes of practice, loss of confidence, political reasons of disagreement with Prime Minister or Cabinet or for genuine personal reasons. In this case we can be sure that the reason is that latter.
But for all that. what is unusual about Ben Wallace’s decision to resign in. what he hopes will be September. is that he has given pitot notice and also, he has decided to quit both his senior ministerial position in Government as the UK’s Secretary of State for Defence at the next reshuffle of ministers and to subsequently stand down and not put himself forward for re-election in a new constituency. He is not alone in doing part of that of course as many other MP’s are standing down because of boundary changes.
The decision also means that Wallace leaves the MOD in a compromised position ahead of publication of the Defence Command Pape, possible later this week although it could still slip back into September.
Sadly, having very unfortunately been forced to miss RIAT this past weekend, means that I have also missed the banter around this. But I will say one thing here, make no mistake that there are a great many within the military who will miss Ben Wallace and some will be saying, get ready for another new one who will probably require hundreds of hours of support – time we just do not have. Not that Rishi Sunak who is proving himself to be not that much better understanding the requirements and current plight of UK defence matters than Boris Johnson, will understand that.
The overall decision-making process within the MOD while the new Secretary of State picking up his or her new brief. Whoever it is, will need to be quickly ‘trained’ and sad to say, it would on past performance, be unusual if the person who is chosen had much if any defence related experience.
Yes, I know that Mr. Wallace himself is a former Army Officer but, as far as I am aware, he did not deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan and although he served in Northern Ireland, Germany and the British Sovereign Base in Cyprus, he spent much time in training backdrop Belize. His lack of experience in understanding air power and control of the air and of Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy showed itself in how he has been so willing to ditch Royal Navy capability such as Type 23’s before their replacement Type 26’s and Type 31’s are ready, RAF Sentinel and Sentry E3-D capability which was unnecessarily prematurely withdrawn and more recently his and his former Chief of Defence Staff’s determination that the RAF fleet of C-130J Hercules should be prematurely withdrawn in order that these were saleable to third party air forces.
That Mr. Wallace is, by having ruled out leaving earlier and triggering a by-election, decided to wait until what he probably anticipates as being September when a new and probably final reshuffle of ministers takes place, is commendable. Press has been quick to speculate that the PM may well appoint Penny Mordant who held the position for just short of three months under Theresa May, or that of Tom Tugendhat, current Minister of State for Security and who would, given his experience, make a good choice.
Of course, Churchill did away with the post during WW2 and took on the role himself. However, my guess is that the current PM Rishi Sunak will not wish to appoint as Secretary of State for Defence anyone who might challenge and it is for that reason alone that I would rule Tom Tugendhat out. Indeed, I fear that the night watchman of this Tory Government may well be someone with absolutely no experience of defence. I hope I am proved wrong. Bad enough that we have a Chief of the Defence Staff who smiles but rarely challenges political authority.
As to Mr. Wallace, having been very clearly put in his place by other Nato member states in his reported desire to be the next head of Nato, he may well be hoping that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak might put him forward for another leading position outside of government. Make no mistake, although you may be surprised to know that he is one of the very few of the now quite probably twenty five Secretary of State for Defence that I have not actually met – both of the pre-arranged meetings in the MOD over the past four years were cancelled – I hold no grudge whatsoever and thank Mr. Wallace for what he has achieved. He has also looked the part and despite being limited in certain elements of knowledge as mentioned above,
So, how has Mr. Wallace performed through his four years in post? In many aspects and particularly given the ongoing negative political attitude in respect of defence and its many obvious underlying weaknesses, better than some predecessors. The defence budget is in theory at least, higher today than it was four years ago. Wallace has commanded international respect despite being easily dismissive of the views of others but he has undoubtedly held his own on the international stage particularly during the period he served under Boris Johnson.
He is adept when it comes to playing on the diplomatic stage and in Ukraine, despite Britain being so short of capability for its own needs, he has brilliantly over sold the meagre contribution that we have been able to make.
It is also true that vocally and behind the scenes he has fought to achieve greater spending on defence. Today, despite the very apparent increased pressures that defence faces, it still stays below education, health and welfare in the chain of command for funding and to many in Government, it remains seen as a department that is still ripe for more cuts. However, as much as his position in Cabinet would take, he did try.
But when it came to the ‘Integrated Review’ and the subsequent ‘Refresh’ Wallace has done very little to ensure that the UK has placed the capability that it needs now ahead of cost. Theoretically, he may have sorted the vexing Ajax problem he inherited but he will leave the MOD with less front-
line air power and maritime capability than he inherited. Of course, he won’t be the first to do that and he probably won’t be the last either.
‘Will the next Secretary of State Please Sign IN’….
(Commentary will during the summer holiday period be somewhat more spasmodic from today)
CHW (London – 17th of July 2023)
Howard Wheeldon FRAeS
Wheeldon Strategic Advisory Ltd,
M: +44 7710 779785
Skype: chwheeldon
@AirSeaRescue