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Fox: Redundancies are Labour's fault
01 September 2011
Just under 1,000 personnel from the army and Royal Air Force will find out today that they are being made redundant in the first wave of cuts outlined in last year's Strategic Defence and Security Review.
Overall around 22,000 armed forces personnel will be made redundant by 2015, including 12,000 from the army and 5,000 each from the Royal Navy and RAF.
"The responsibility for these redundancies lies with the incompetence of the last Labour government who left the nation's finances broken and a £38bn black hole in the defence budget," said Fox.
"The tough measures we have taken will bring the budget largely into balance for the first time in a generation.
"The extra money we have allocated for the equipment budget from 2015 will allow our defence capability to grow in the second half of the decade.
"Of course redundancies are always sad news, but we will continue to have strong and capable forces and we appreciate the hard work of our brave armed forces."
Shadow Defence Secretary Jim Murphy criticised Fox's comments, however, saying that the government could have reduced the deficit more slowly and carefully.
"They say it isn't through choice, but the government has decided to cut the deficit as quickly as it has, and this is a consequence of a deficit reduction plan that's going too far and a defence review that went far too quickly," Murphy told the BBC.
"I think that it's a politics and policy free of conscience and free of right and wrong and that's the type of thing that's absolutely ludicrous."
In this first wave, around 750 personnel will be made redundant against their will, with the remainder having applied for redundancy.
Around 140 Gurkhas are to go in a move that has been blamed on recent high-profile campaigns to put them on an equal footing with regular British troops.
HAVE YOUR SAY
01 September 2011
Hmmm. Not sure I completely agree with Dr Fox. The last time it was measured, a generation was approximately 23 years, Labour was only 'in charge' (ahem) for 14 years, so does this mean the MoD budget was out of balance during the last Conservative Govt?
Either way, it is immaterial. The losers are the servicemen & women and their families.
AW Employee - Yeovil
01 September 2011
Blair & Dracula (aka Brown), consistently showed that they didn't give a care for defence. 'Real terms' this & 'fiscal' that, whilst all the time masquerading as actual budget reductions...I don't know why anyone would vote Labour-they certainly are not a party for their namesake; abolishing the 10p tax rate for a start. Now you have Wallace & Grommit candidate Milliband to squirm at the thought of standing next to Obama or Medvedev...No thanks...
Laskovar - UK
01 September 2011
Nonsense, they had a choice they haven chosen to increase the UK's oversea aid budget by 34% whilst cutting the numbers of police and armed forces. That is their choice they made it so they carry the responsibility.
I posted an e-Petition link on another DM article yesterday:
"National and Public Safety First - Overseas Aid Second
Responsible department: Her Majesty's Treasury
I call upon the UK Government to put national and public safety first by spending half of the money targeted for overseas aid on retaining the current number of Police Officers and members of the Armed Forces."
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/12022
Graham - High Wycombe
01 September 2011
There is no balance in the structure of the UK military.
Fox has no bloody idea. Though he is not alone as politicians since the 60's have on the most part been unknowledgeable and uncommitted to their departments.
Shaun - Ex-RNZN
01 September 2011
Graham - High Wycombe
I have to agree with both you and Laskovar if that is possible.
Labour did get us into this mess and there is no way that I could vote Miliband and Balls into government, we think the current lot are bad.
However as you stated the current government did have choices, they did not need to increase overseas aid to the levels they did at the expense of our own Police and Defence Budgets, why are we giving aid to countries who give aid to other countries (India), why are we giving aid to a country that has more Billionaires than us (again India).
Rob - Telford
01 September 2011
Agreed Rob,
it is ludicrous to give aid to India/China. All spend billions on defence/nuclear programmes-if they can't provide a quality of life for their own people-why should we?
1st day of being PM 1-cut aid to these countries; 2-commence public referendum on whether to remain/leave the EU...
Laskovar - UK
01 September 2011
"1st day of being PM 1-cut aid to these countries; 2-commence public referendum on whether to remain/leave the EU...
Laskovar - UK"
You have my vote sir.
Tom - London, UK
01 September 2011
Rob - Telford
Yes Labour did get us into a mess especially on defence (Nimrod MRA4 and F-35B instead of C with the implications for the carriers) and on immigration which was far too high for this country to sustain (I want to see an Australian points style system that is fair and skills focused).
However this government were simply lucky they were not in power in September 2008 when the global financial crisis occurred as I believe they would have had to bail out the banks just the same. It is that which is most to blame for our debt level and that is why I say the responsibility for these defence cuts really lies with this government that is going to voluntarily increase our aid budget by several billion a year while drastically reducing our armed forces to save a similar amount. That is their choice and so they carry the blame.
This government cannot have it both ways and blame the last government while making the wrong choices. As has been pointed out increasing aid to India by £1bn is obscene when they are now a reasonably rich country making huge increases to their own defence budget.
Graham - High Wycombe
01 September 2011
Graham - High Wycombe.... The Labour government bailed the banks out to the tune of approx 20 billion pounds. The defecit when the tory/lib dem team took over was over 90 billion pounds. All the time Mr Brown talking Fiscal this and Prudence that he was borrowing billions every year to pay for his spending plans. Even without the Banking Crisis this country was skint. We were spending beyond our means, borrowing for fun while at the same time the MOD were given 'real terms increses in spending' or cuts as they are known while we went off on out latest jaunt to fix the world. Gordon Brown was the man after all who said a pound spent on defence is a pound wasted!!!!
The current government have cut everything except foreign aid... Honestly i wouldn't vote for any of them.
Dave Lisle - Scotland
02 September 2011
I am sure that Blair and Brown were more that capable of spending enough on quango's and other rubbish to spend sufficient to cover a generation and more.
The only support we got was from Conservative governments during my service in the RAF.
A Labour government was always bad news - think the TSR2 - brilliant aicraft which would have made millions for the UK and wouldstill be flying today.
Morgeo - Moncton, Canada..
02 September 2011
Dave Lisle - Scotland
I have to dispute your figures Dave, I am under the belief that bailing out the banks cost £800bn not £20bn and indeed our national deficit as a percentage of GDP soared from the mid forties to nearly seventy percent. If I am wrong then by all means correct me.
However I do agree that Labour was spending beyond our means as it required economic growth to sustain. They should have been reducing the deficit and been prudent instead they tried to buy votes, housing benefit soared from 7bn to 20bn a year in only a few years under Labour and that is just one example!
I've never voted Labour and don't like the Tories so in the past voted Lib Dem but now I really don't know. I am not anti EU so won't vote UKIP so I will have to decide in 2015 right now I feel the same as you.
Graham - High Wycombe