Ben Wallace, the Defense Secretary, has announced his resignation from the Government in the upcoming Cabinet reshuffle and his decision to not run in the next election.
Mr. Wallace stated that he will not be standing next time, but he will not leave Parliament prematurel and put the burden of another by-election on Rishi Sunak.
“I entered politics in the Scottish parliament in 1999,” he told The Sunday Times. “That’s 24 years.”
Since July 2019, Mr. Wallace has served as the Defense Secretary. Prior to that, he held the position of Minister for Security and Economic Crime starting from 2016.
Referring to the pressures and security responsibilities of his ministerial roles since 2016, he mentioned that he had “spent well over seven years with three phones by my bed.”
In an interview, Mr. Wallace disclosed that he had informed the Prime Minister about his resignation intentions on June 16 and was planning to make the announcement during the summer.
However, due to a leak within the government indicating that he was considering leaving, he was compelled to confirm his plans publicly earlier.
As a possible warning to Mr. Sunak regarding defense spending, he highlighted that the Prime Minister had committed to allocating 2.5 percent of GDP to defense, though without specifying a date.
His primary concerns lie in the security threats posed by Russia and an expansionist China, as well as the potential resurgence of ISIS or al-Qaeda in Africa.
“Towards the end of the decade, the world is going to be much more unsafe, more insecure,” he stated. “I believe we will find ourselves in a conflict. Whether it is a cold or a warm conflict, we will be in a challenging position.”
Deep Vulnerabilities
Regarding China, he expressed that tensions over Taiwan’s future make the UK deeply vulnerable, adding, “Taiwan manufactures 90 percent of the world’s most powerful chips in literally one factory.”
“What we should worry about more is the South China Sea, where China is actually stealing or establishing sovereignty over areas that other nations perceive as their economic zones,” he explained.
He went on to describe disputes between China and countries like Vietnam and the Philippines over fishing grounds, with China deploying massive flotillas.
On Russia, he cautioned that “if Putin loses in Ukraine, he will be deeply wounded.”
“He still has an air force and a navy, and we have witnessed his navy engaging in aggressive maneuvers. Putin is not done with us yet. Over the next three or four years, he has the capacity to strike back,” Mr. Wallace stated.
Mr. Wallace expressed pride in negotiating a £24 billion budget increase for the Ministry of Defense and implementing defense reform and army modernization.
“When I took over the department, it had endured 30 years of budget cuts. Defense was seen as discretionary spending, while health and education dominated the government’s priorities,” he explained. “I hope that in the past four years, I have been able to secure genuinely new funding and win the argument that defense is core.”
Denial of responsibility! VigourTimes is an automatic aggregator of Global media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, and all materials to their authors. For any complaint, please reach us at – [email protected]. We will take necessary action within 24 hours.
