Ben Wallace puts down Labour’s nuclear triple lock plan with four-letter insult
The Tory ex-defence secretary said defence had been hollowed out by both Labour and Conservative governments.
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Former defence secretary Ben Wallace has branded Labour’s nuclear deterrent triple lock pledge as “triple c**k”, as he called for a defence spending hike to 3% of GDP.
It comes after Sir Keir Starmer on the General Election campaign trail reaffirmed his commitment to Britain’s nuclear deterrent.
The Labour leader’s “triple lock” includes delivering four new ballistic submarines, maintaining the continuous-at-sea deterrent and providing all the necessary upgrades for the boats to continue their patrols.
But Tory ex-Cabinet minister Mr Wallace told The Sun’s Never Mind The Ballots programme: “Triple c**k I think the whole thing is.
“It’s all made up.”
He also accused Labour of being “fundamentally dishonest”, saying: “Both Labour and Conservative governments over the last two, three, decades hollowed out defence.
“I think there’s a lot of dishonesty going on in Labour’s pitch. Half the shadow cabinet voted against Trident.”
Sir Keir, speaking at the Fusilier Museum in Bury, Greater Manchester, on Monday, insisted he had the whole shadow cabinet behind him on nuclear weapons when challenged over previous opposition from some on his front bench.
His deputy Angela Rayner and shadow foreign secretary David Lammy voted against renewing the Trident deterrent eight years ago under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.
Towards the end of the decade we should be spending 3% of GDP
Sir Keir reiterated his aim of spending 2.5% of gross domestic product (GDP), a measure of the size of the economy, on defence when economic conditions allow.
Mr Wallace said: “Labour keep using this funny little phrase ‘when economic conditions allow’. We don’t say that about the health service. We should say ‘when threat demands it’.”
With Rishi Sunak recently making clear he wants to meet the 2.5% target by 2030, Mr Wallace said the Prime Minister “has seen” the threat “is rising”.
But he suggested this did not go far enough as he called for an uplift to 3%.
Mr Wallace told BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme: “The threat is rising towards the end of the decade, I would suggest, as others have, that towards the end of the decade we should be spending 3% of GDP.
“However, to get there you have to follow a progressive line, you can’t just dollop billions of dollars or pounds to a department who won’t be able to spend it.”
Labour last week criticised the Government for allowing British Army numbers to fall below its target figure for the first time, as Ministry of Defence personnel statistics showed soldier numbers dropping below 73,000.
The Government’s defence plans include reducing the size of the regular army from a commitment of 82,000 troops to 73,000 by 2025 – down from 97,000 a decade ago.
Mr Wallace said he did not regret reducing the numbers, adding: “We weren’t able to fund defence for the size of the army, and we have been like that since I served in the army in 1991.”