Defence secretary John Healey has announced emergency cuts to the UK military including 31 helicopters and the Royal Navy’s two amphibious assault ships.
The government has blamed the disputed £22 billion black hole left in the finances by the Tories. However, the Conservatives have warned that the cuts have come because Labour refuses to spend 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence.
Defence secretary John Healey told MPs that Labour had “a dire inheritance” from the Tories in defence.
“We have begun to fix the foundations going forward,” he added.
“For too long our soldiers, sailors and air staff have been stuck with using outdted equipment.”
He said the savings would be worth £500 million over the next five years.
The emergency statement caught MPs by surprise today and have left doubts over whether the UK could take back the Falklands if they were invaded again.
The scrapping of HMS Bulwark and HMS Albion leaves the UK without any amphibious assault ships along with the frigate HMS Northumberland.
Mr Healey said that Bulwark and Albion had been “superficially retired” by Tory ministers “but lept on the books at a cost of £9 million a year.”
The defence secretary said that the service chiefs had agreed to his “common sense decisions which previous governments had failed to take.”
He added: “These will not be the last difficult decisions I will have to take.”
Added to that 31 helicopters – 14 Chinooks and 17 Pumas – are also to be permenantly grounded. The UK’s replacement helicopter programme is still some years away. There were 294 helicopters in the armed forces last year.
Also going are the outdated 40-year-old watchkeeper drones.
The government is currently conducting a strategic defence review and were unable to rule out further cuts. There have already been concerns that the size of the army will be reduced to 63,000.
Tory shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge said: “We have heard it all! Labour calling itself the party of defence.”
He went on: “They have refused to set a pathway to 2.5 per cent (of GDP on defence spending) and instead of a pathway we have cuts.”
