"My advice would be to spend it now, because that way we might stop there being a war," he says. It is reduced."Ĭontinuing to criticise Mr Shapps, Lord West says he's "glibly" talking about spending 2.5% of GDP on defence "at some stage", while saying "in his next breath, the world's very dangerous, all sorts of things are going to happen." "Although Grant Shapps talks of £50bn being spent, yes, it is, but if you relate that to the same expenditure back in say 2000 or back, say in 1990, it's nowhere near the same amount. He says that as an admiral, he would "always want more ships".īut more seriously, he says the numbers of ships in the navy and troops in the army have been cut "dramatically" This would, he said, be the only way to ensure that RedBird IMI could not challenge any subsequent action that the government may wish to take in relation to the deal.įinally, Sophy Ridge asks Lord Alan West, former first sea lord and chief of the naval staff, if we are spending enough money on defence. Mr O'Brien said that while Lucy Frazer had been right to issue a PIIN focused on the conversion of that debt into ownership of the Telegraph newspapers, she should go further by also subjecting the debt repayment to scrutiny from Ofcom and the Competition and Markets Authority. Sky News has learned that Neil O'Brien, a former health minister who sits on the Tory backbenches, wants the culture secretary to issue a public interest intervention notice (PIIN) which encompasses RedBird IMI's repayment of a £1.2bn debt to Lloyds Banking Group on behalf of the Barclay family. "That's the danger when you don't have sufficient defence," he said.Ī Conservative MP is urging ministers to extend a probe into the prospective takeover of The Daily Telegraph, warning that the Abu Dhabi-backed vehicle which wants to acquire it may already be exerting "material influence" over the newspaper. He gave the example of Argentina feeling comfortable invading the Falklands in 1982 and the vast expense of the ensuing battle to retake them. He said when Putin looks towards the UK, he'll think "they're obviously not that serious about it", citing our smaller naval capacity and lack of fighter jets to sit on board aircraft carriers. "But one of the ways of ensuring these things don't happen, for example, is if countries like the UK and in Europe spend money on defence because then when Putin looks, he thinks those people are taking it seriously." "I wouldn't want to frighten the horses by saying these things are going to happen," he said. Putin will think UK 'not serious' about defence Lord West went on to say it is "naïve to think these events around the world aren't going to impact on us", noting the war in Ukraine and the consequences of any war between NATO and Russia. He said the public have not noticed warnings from military people like him that "we're letting our defence capability decline" because "there are other things they're focused on". The "reality", he said, is "it's the most dangerous and unpredictable world I've known in the 50-60 years that I've been on the active list". He told Sophy the UK population has been "lulled into a false sense of security that there aren't that many threats and dangers to them personally, even though things are going on in the world". On tonight's edition of Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge, we heard from Lord Alan West, former first sea lord and chief of the naval staff.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |