Defence Secretary Liam Fox defends armed forces cuts

Forces minister Nick Harvey says they have to try and bring the defence budget into balance

Cuts being made to the armed forces will mean Britain's defence capability can grow later in the decade, Defence Secretary Liam Fox has said.

He was speaking on the day 930 RAF and 920 Army personnel are being told they are being made redundant - including 750 compulsory redundancies.
The Army and RAF will eventually cut 7,000 and 5,000 posts respectively.
Shadow Defence Secretary Jim Murphy said the cuts went too far and were the result of a rushed defence review.
But Mr Fox blamed the "incompetence" of the Labour government for the cuts and said the UK would still have strong forces.
He said: "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."
He said the previous Labour government "left the nation's finances broken" and a "£38bn black hole" in the defence budget.
The tough measures would bring the budget largely into balance for the first time in a generation, he said.
"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," said Mr Fox.
'Free of conscience' The MoD is looking to shed 22,000 posts over the next four years - more than half through redundancies.

I don't believe Mr Cameron and those involved in making the decision to cut the Armed Forces are fully aware of the true cost and impact that the stroke of their pens will have on those who have served them so proudly”

Wife of an active serviceman

 

The Army employs just over 100,000 service personnel while the RAF has 40,000.

The MoD has said personnel receiving the operational allowance, because they are serving in Libya and Afghanistan or are preparing for, or have recently returned from operations, will be exempt from the cuts unless they apply.
No RAF pilots or ground crew involved in operations over Libya will be forced to leave in this round of redundancies.
Armed Forces Minister Nick Harvey said: "I have put the question inside the ministry (of defence) and I have been told that nobody currently involved in the Libyan operations on the RAF will find themselves being made compulsorily redundant.
"It is possible that one or two of them may have volunteered, in which case they may or may not defending whether they are people we think we can spare."
But Mr Murphy said: "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."

Armed forces' cuts

• Army: 920 redundancies rising to 7,000 out of 100,000
• RAF: 930 redundancies rising to 5,000 out of 40,000

He said the deficit could be reduced more carefully in a way that did not leave the UK without an aircraft carrier, a decision which had left "people across the world scratching their heads".

He added: "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."
Conservative MP and former Army colonel, Patrick Mercer, agreed the cuts were going too far.
"We've never needed our combat forces more than we need them at the moment. The future is extremely uncertain," he said.

Questions of morale
 
There had been plenty of volunteers for redundancy - which was likely to raise more questions about morale.
In the Army, 870 soldiers volunteered for redundancy, but only 660 have been accepted, our correspondent said.
This means that 260 Army personnel who did not apply for redundancy will be forced out of a job, he said.
More than half of those compulsory redundancies - 150 - will be Gurkhas.

 

The armed forces is looking to shed 17,000 posts over the next four years

 

In the RAF there were 620 applications for redundancy, said our correspondent, 440 of them have been approved. That means most redundancies - 490 - will be compulsory, he said.
The Royal Navy will announce details of its redundancies later this year.
Members of the armed forces accepted for voluntary redundancy will serve six months' notice, while those forced out will serve a year.
Gurkha Justice Campaign founder Peter Carroll strongly criticised the redundancies, calling them "short-sighted" and said it risked "undermining the 200-year history between Britain and Nepal."
"It is particularly unfair that such a large number of Gurkhas are going against their own wishes. These are people who, as individuals, have given many years of loyal service to the UK," he said.
Eviction Servicemen and women and their families have been contacting the BBC with their reaction.
One person who works at RAF Lossiemouth said a huge split had occurred in the air force between those who wish to leave and those who are being forced.
They said the MoD was forcing people out of their jobs by refusing to renew the contracts of those whose original nine-year contract had come to an end, a decision which was "more disgusting than voluntary redundancies".
The wife of a serviceman whose active service has seen him deployed to Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan, said: "On the final day of service all those made redundant will not only be unemployed, many with no transferable skills, but they also then have only three months in their homes before facing eviction.
"I don't believe Mr Cameron and those involved in making the decision to cut the Armed Forces are fully aware of the true cost and impact that the stroke of their pens will have on those who have served them so proudly."
And someone who is serving in the Falkland Islands said people on duty there were also in the frame for redundancy.