Hard on the heels of my post of yesterday (showing that, contrary to Gordon Brown’s assertion that defence spending is rising year on year, it has in fact drastically declined as a share of GDP), come the findings of an inquiry by Channel 4’s FactCheck. These reveal that in real terms – taking inflation into account – defence spending has fallen year-on-year four times since 1997.
Shadow Leader of the House, Sir George Young, raised the issue in the House at Business Questions today:
Sir George Young: May we have a statement from the Prime Minister on his assertion at Question Time yesterday? He said that under this Government
“the defence budget has been rising every year.”—[Official Report, 10 March 2010; Vol. 507, c. 291.]
That is a claim the Prime Minister made repeatedly at the Chilcot inquiry last Friday, but as he should know, spending on the Ministry of Defence was in fact cut in real terms between 2003–04 and 2004–05. The Leader of the House will know that the ministerial code requires Ministers to correct
“any inadvertent error at the earliest opportunity.”
Given that the Prime Minister is at risk of inadvertently misleading Parliament, when will he put the record straight?
The Leader of the House, Harriet Harman, would have none of it:
Ms Harman: The Prime Minister gave evidence to the Chilcot inquiry last Friday, he answered questions about defence spending in Prime Minister’s questions yesterday, and there will be a defence debate on Monday. I strongly refute any suggestion or implication from the shadow Leader of the House that the Prime Minister has in any way misled the House or, indeed, anyone else. He has been absolutely forthright about the defence budget and about this Government’s long-standing and strong commitment to ensuring that our defence forces have the resources they need. They have the full backing of the Government and, indeed, the British people.
So no prospect of an admission of fallibility from Gordon. Indeed, he was in denial again today. When it was put to him that senior commanders – Lord Guthrie included – were adamant in their contention that he had rejected requests of additional funding, he replied simply: “They are wrong.”
