Liz Truss Gets Major Endorsement From Defence Secretary in Leadership Race

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and Defence Secretary Ben Wallace leaving 10 Downing Street, London, following a Cabinet meeting on April 19, 2022. Victoria Jones/PA Media

British Conservative leadership contender Liz Truss on Friday got a major boost to her campaign as Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said she is the candidate who “will do best by defence of this nation.”

Citing some of Truss’s previous roles, Wallace wrote in The Times of London that the foreign secretary is “the only candidate who has both the breadth and depth of experience needed” to confront the challenges the UK is facing, including the “severe” economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, “rampant global inflation,” Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the fact that “plenty of other states and non-state actors are challenging our security, prosperity, and values.”

Both Sunak and Truss studied politics, philosophy, and economics at Oxford University and have been in charge of one of the four great offices of state—Truss being the foreign secretary and Sunak serving as the chancellor of the exchequer for the last two and a half years.

Sunak became the local government minister in 2018 before Prime Minister Boris Johnson promoted him next year to the Treasury, where he served as the chief secretary to the Treasury and then the chancellor.

Truss held a number of ministerial roles since 2012 in several departments, including education and childcare minister; environment, food, and rural affairs secretary; justice secretary; chief secretary to the Treasury; international trade secretary; and now the foreign secretary.

Between the two candidates, Wallace argued only Truss would know her way “around the international community as well as the Treasury” from day one.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace speaking to new recruits to the Ukrainian army who are being trained by the UK armed forces personnel at a military base near Manchester on July 7, 2022. Louis Wood/The Sun via PA media

He also said Truss is the candidate who “understands the world in which we are now living” in terms of defence.

Wallace said Truss had “always been straight in her dealings with defence and consistent in her support” for soldiers, and that he welcomes “her plans to update the integrated review, reconsider the shape of our forces, and increase defence spending.”

His remarks come after MPs on the Defence Committee urged the government on Thursday to reconsider the plans set out in the integrated review to shrink the size of the military personnel by 9,500 and to address the gap in capabilities caused by retiring equipment before the proposed high-tech replacements are ready.

Put to him that the Treasury has delivered increased defence budgets when Sunak was the Chancellor, Wallace told BBC Radio 4’s “Today” programme that Johnson did that.

“It was the prime minister’s determination that we got a multi-year settlement, that we got one when we desperately needed one, and we got £24 billion extra,” he said.

“And that investment I’m keen continues. I don’t want it to be a sort of boom or bust, which has often happened to defence, and that’s why it gets into big trouble.”

He also told LBC that the Treasury wanted a one-year settlement instead of a multi-year one, adding “This was back in 2019, I think,” and said Johnson “effectively asserted his authority and made sure” defence got a multi-year budget deal.

Wallace said the UK’s defence spending is projected to “drop below two per cent of GDP in 2026,” meaning the UK “will fall from being the highest spender in Europe to eighth and then further still, as our closest allies have increased their spending since [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s invasion.”

Asked how Truss plans to pay for the increase in defence spending to 3 percent of the GDP and other spending she promised, Wallace told Sky News that Truss promised to achieve the defence spending growth by 2030, arguing, “that commitment to funding would really start rising in 2025,” giving her time to deal with the current cost of living crisis.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak stands with the Budget Box outside 11 Downing Street in London, ahead of presenting his Autumn Budget and Spending Review to Parliament, on Oct. 27, 2021. Leon Neal/Getty Images

Wallace also criticised Sunak, whose resignation earlier this month, along with former Health Secretary Sajid Javid’s, triggered an avalanche of cabinet resignations that forced Johnson to resign as the prime minister.

“I just don’t think triggering cabinet ministers walking out at a time of a crisis is the right course of action. There were other mechanisms to do what they wanted,” Wallace said, referring to another confidence vote that reportedly was to be held the following week.