Government expected to announce changes in defence spending

Homeland December 18, 2019

The newly elected government is expected to announce big changes in defence spending following criticism from aide Dominic Cummings.

Following a critical blog post on defence spending by Dominic Cummings, the government is expected to make big changes to how the MOD is financed. The post, written eight months ago, challenged government spending including two aircraft carriers and MOD construction methods.

The critique has led many to believe the government will announce big changes in how the defence sector is funded. During the election campaign, the conservatives promised to match NATO targets of 2% of GDP being spent on defence and to increase it by at least 0.05% above inflation each year.

Dominic Cummings said: “Scrutiny by our MPs has been contemptible. They have built platforms that already cannot be sent to a serious war against a serious enemy.”

“The officials in charge of multi-billion processes are mostly mediocre, often appalling.”

It is expected that Cumminngs will launch a review into the defence budget. Boris Johnson is due to announce a cabinet reshuffle soon and Cummings is expected to personally tackle defence procurement in 2020.

Sajid Javid will release budget plans in spring next year and the PM has promised to put forward a number of proposals, including his Brexit deal, to parliament before Christmas. According to Malcolm Chalmers from the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), the government will make changes to what is viewed as a priority for defence.

Britain’s contribution to EU defence is relatively small at 2.3% of member state personnel deployment. The EU has said that they will continue to work with the UK as a defence partner following Britain’s planned exit from the European Union.

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Budget Defence spending MOD parliament procurement RUSI UK Government