Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has confirmed his intention to step down from his post during the forthcoming Cabinet reshuffle, ending a tenure of four years.
The news was revealed in an exclusive interview with the Sunday Times, wherein he also confirmed his plans to not stand for the next general election.
However, Wallace has dismissed the notion of an early exit, saying that he had no intention of leaving “prematurely” and causing a by-election. “I will not stand at the next general election“, he stated, “but ruled out leaving prematurely and triggering a by-election”.
During his service as defence secretary, Wallace has worked under three different prime ministers and has been a key figure in the UK’s response to the conflict in Ukraine.
The anticipated reshuffle is expected to occur in September.
Wallace’s current constituency, Wyre and Preston North, is earmarked to disappear due to upcoming boundary changes in the next election. The Defence Secretary revealed that he “would not seek a new one“.
This announcement by the 53-year-old puts to rest days of conjecture about his future in government.
Ben had good grip on uk defence, first with lethal aid to Ukraine. A good candidate for nato supremo job but not politically possible.
Don’t worry the European nations and our great ally the US have picked Ursula von der Leyen what could possible go wrong. I heard her first job will be to order more broomsticks for NATO troops…
According to reports, von der Leyen does appear to have matured into an ‘adept politician’ – make of that phrase what you will – over the years, as so she should’ve. A case of Idealism becoming Realpolitik through necessity. However, what does astound, is the extent to which she seems the only choice for any and all major positions. There must be and are other effective nominees, whether or not Ben Wallace was likely going to get the post (deserved) with Godfathers like Biden & Macron in cohorts. Used to be a popular wartime radio progamme, which I’m reminded of,… Read more »
Ursula Von Der Legend as next NATO secretary general. God help us all. Demented Joe must need some more ECT. VDL is a disaster zone. Don’t believe me? Look what she achieved and her record of failures as German minister of defence under Angela Merkel.
Funny you should mention Joe, I believe Jill and Ursula are actually personal friends.
Well said.
Cobblers.
A disappointed man and who can blame him. His NATO job effectively handed to an incompetent failure and his constituency abolished. I hope at the moment that next week’s “review” wasn’t the final nail.
A man who was so stupid he thought he could negotiate with Russia.
Give your head a wobble.
Sarcasm is no substitute for substance.
Excuse me.
Were not certain people casting aspersions on Labour as a Party that would negotiate with people like Putin?
And yet Wallace went out and did the exact same.
Did the Cons seek to smash the Russian occupation – we signed up to protect them – in 2014?
Did we deliver effective sanctions against Russia from 2014?
No sacarasm, just a knowing feeling have narrowly avoided a bullet or two when Ukrainians never got the chance because of the Cons beholden to Putin.
Just the UK then David? Germany, France, USA, in fact most of the Western world wouldn’t you agree? As for BW going to negotiate with Putin, he had nothing to lose and everything to gain imo. Tell me, how did Mr Macron fare when he had a go not so long back? Not that well either really. You are absolutely correct in one aspect though, the West failed the UKR badly in 2014. That was the time to stop Mad Vlad in his tracks, yet collectively we passed the buck and now, we are reaping such indecisiveness. Unfortunately to our… Read more »
Deep32, an earlier poster posited that Labour would immediately negotiate with an enemy; conveniently forgetting, as you state, that the Cons never stood up to Russia in 2014 and tried measly words in the run up to ’22, all of which rather grips my shit wrt to this sometimes echo chamber website chant of Labour bad.
Got to agree with you mate, when politics enters the debates on here, things get a tad passionate and tribal. Some of which makes me chuckle, but unfortunately detracts from things. Hutton you say, from your neck of the woods I presume? I don’t think he was a DS for long, cant really place him in the job. Personally I think that both Carrington and Robertson were pretty good DS back in the day, don’t think Riffkind did a bag job either. Don’t believe we’ve seen much better since unfortunately. Indeed didn’t Robertson go on to be NATO GS too.… Read more »
Not for the first time I have difficulty in following what it is you’re trying to say What has what happened nine years ago got to do with Ben Wallace? Answer, nothing.
When did Wallace negotiate with Russia?
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/defence-secretary-meets-russian-counterpart-in-moscow
Thanks. Ben met his opposite number in Moscow as did accompanying CDS and they had frank discussions. Not what I would call a negotiation – no deal was being orchestrated.
Give your head a wobble! Fuck I’ve not heard that for years 😂👍 I’m going to use that more often in polite conversation 😇
MP have always delivered for PARA.
Normally, just outside your lines but if you were being tasty to RE PARA or RHA… we could be naughty as well.
IF You were really tasty we put you in the old ACC Guardhouse.
Didn’t you just love your free taxi ride back to lines?
Generally from outside the Rat pit or 5s….you never got the thanks you lads deserved 🤮🤥😇
?? Macron was the one who negotiated with Russia, David. Remember the stupidly long Putin table.
Here come the cuts
Is there anything left to cut?
Why you having your first shave?
Apparently he also had an argument with the incompetent Suella Braverman because she didn’t arrange for adequate cover for border force strikes. Ben Wallace is a superb defence minister and the only competent Tory MP in Parliament. This Conservative Party is a shambles and I have voted Conservative for all my life since I could vote (30 years). They will get totally and deservedly destroyed at the next general election. Only option now is to take a punt on the reform party. Labour will also bring this country further on its knees…all the three main parties are all the same.
I agree, unfortunately there is a supreme lack of competence statesmen in the correct positions in the conservative government, The people in controlling positions are more ideological puppets than statesmen and the PM seems to be just a weak figure head with the different ideological groups pulling at different strings on different days. Wallace was the only one who seemed on his brief for the sake of his brief.
I really appreciate your posts, always so erudite.
Can we agree to disagree on this one?
Hi Barry indeed we can, especially on politics, as it’s always a personal opinion..so we are both correct from our own perspective.
Agree about him being the only competent Tory MP and minister. Disagree about your views on Labour. Politics is cyclical people vote Tory for 2-3 parliament’s then get fed up with the utter balls up and sheer crap state of public services, lack of investment in infrastructure and the numbers of scandals. The general public then vote Labour and Lib Dem to get the bafoons out. Which is what we now need. 2-3 terms of Labour to try to rebuild the economy, sort out the utter mess, get rid of a few hundred thousand quangos and we might then be… Read more »
yet Labour cut the Frigate fleet, to its current state, and secured the T45 design. and the list goes on with labour/liberal/Tories. they are one and the same. powerless to change anything as the funding and debt is set by the outgoing party. remember Gordan Brown and leader of the Quango’s. Labour run Councils currently in financial peril is alarming. NONE ARE FIT TO GOVERN NONE.
But alas that doesn’t happen mate does it, Labour get in and it becomes another cluster by the end of their first term, total shit show by the second. We have so little worth voting for its bloody depressing!
Couldn’t agree more, never known the country to be in such a depressing state, military run down to the bare bones, the clowns in charge of us a bunch of self serving halfwits and an invasion on our south coast that Adolf would have been proud of.
I disagree. He is totally out of his depth.
And here we go with an anti Labour tirade.
How much cool aid do you all drink?
The sheep will always swallow hook line and sinker what the tory controlled press feed them. Then act all baffled when the country ends up completely broken for anyone who isn’t one of the richest 1%.
Thanks I had more than enough of Blairites and people pretending men are women are vice versa. I’m afraid all three main parties and infected with cultural Marxists and people are getting fed up of the Tories, Labour and that party I can barely remember their name…Ah yes the Liberal Democrats. I want a new set of parties that put the UK first.
Agree none of the current group are fit to run.
Yet run they will and they will be the only real choices for most of us in England. Perhaps we need to acknowledge that governing a country isn’t easy. That’s why we need to rethink just electing a bunch of random people to do the job and leaving them to it. Perhaps we need streamed hustings in all constituencies so we can see who we are electing. And perhaps we need to have some formalised education for those we do elect, so that they have a better chance of understanding the ramifications of legislation they vote on and will form… Read more »
So no sheep in the left side then? Only people reading “Tory press” are the sheep? This is why we are in a shit state as to many people from all parties blindly follow that party no matter what they do, as old loyalties “always voted Labour me, me dad did, grandparents blah blah” chuff ensures we all argue with each other while incompetent politicians do what the fuck they want! See past the party, look at policies is quite an easy starting point!
I don’t want a return to the days of New Labour at all. Tony Blair started the process of UK decline (yes John Major was also part of that I agree). However, rather than ditch new Labour the conservatives copied it and this is the origin of the current issues the UK faces.
Dare I say possibly the only current politician I respected. I imagine it will come out that they’ve been pushing for reductions or refusals to upgrade the armed forces.
Dear Brom, I feel the same. He’s a traditional conservative so the Tory’s want to push him out of a ministerial post and his seat is going through boundary changes. Probably too white and middle aged for their liking for a new seat which will inevitable go to one of the preferred short list candidates to improve “diversity” whatever that means… He’s already had an argument with Suella over using troops to provide cover for the incompetent home office. I really liked him and he would have made an excellent PM unlike the incompetent Rishi Sunak.We seem to have been… Read more »
The CDS General Sir Patrick Sanders has considerable support within the defence establishment. Wallace effectively sacked him for his outspoken comments on the Army cuts – and now he has himself decided that its time to go. Wallace willl be remembered for getting an extra £18 billion for the defence budget, continuing with the Ajax disaster when it should have been cancelled and running a system where despite spending £12 billion on 175 Typhoons, on any one day only about 50 airworthy planes are available with trained pilots. The most important question is who will replace him. Let’s hope we… Read more »
I think you will be waiting a long time…there is no one competent in the conservative party (same applies to Labour). Unfortunately, unless we pay better salaries to MPs we’ll be left with the dross that wouldn’t make it past an office clerk providing tea for the troops. Unfortunately as with all countries that were once great we are destined for decline until we as a nation take charge and bring about change. Voting for the same three parties all the time and expecting different results is the definition of insanity.
Indeed. I shall remember Capt Mainwaring for his decision to spend £121,000 refurbishing the regimental foxhounds’ kennels at the Larkhill RA in Wiltshire. At a time when literally thousands of service families were living in appalling conditions in what were once MoD married quarters before they were sold off by the MoD to a private equity firm
sounds cheap i spent £275k on Guard dog kennels @ Minley with tv/radio heating. and when the C/O from Pompey visited she spent £75k on the same set up and was applaud and said there are Guard dogs not Crufts,
What I really dislike about what you said is that there appears to be no one competent in the Defence team.
Unfortunately, you have it 100%.
Time we got rid of archaic first past the post and bring in proportional representation.
And what will that achieve? It certainly won’t improve the quality of MPs or their ability to act independently.
On hearing the news the Shadow defence team have started looking at sending hit teams in which to support the Ukraine in their fight against Russia when they come to power These skilled squads trained to operate on the dance floor leant their skills by camouflaging themselves as the opposite gender (They, them ,Xe) on Hampstead Heath and the BBCs Blue Peter garden sneaking up on the enemy and attacking them from behind. In order to ensure that the British public are kept well informed of how these hit teams are doing, they has set up a special news team… Read more »
Agree Ben Wallace has been excellent. Had to laugh at sending certain people to talk to the younger generation…I’m sure they would jump at the opportunity.
Huw Edwards has been admitted to hospital over mental health issues
I’m a bit cynical….
Lack of Moral Fibre to face the fact that he is a Dirty Old Man. and if we all went and perved his daughter he wouldn’t be hiding like a coward. hopeful he finds something sharp in his padded cell to open his fan mail
Got caught with his pants down (literally) and then goes to a clinic claiming mental illness. If this guy ends up on the box again I’ll cancel my TV license. Noted the left wing protect their own but would be screaming like hell if it were someone right wing (although that’s never that likely). Where is decency and honour in the UK these days???
Cobblers. I needed to know they could function under pressure and fight! UK Secretary of Defence Ben Wallace is retiring after four years. It is the general consensus of opinion in political circles that he has done a good job. In most respects that is true. This former Guards Officer had a good relationship with serving commanders in the armed forces and understood the problems that they were encountering. However, in that four years nothing in the armed forces has changed for the better. In fact it hasn’t changed at all. Morale in the armed forces is at an all… Read more »
I think the issue was is that Ben Wallace was fighting against the tide. These one nation Tories that have infected the conservatives are destroying all the institutions in this land. There is no one with honesty, integrity, transparency and competency. Nepotism, corporatism mixed with a weird blend of statism, fraud and incompetence. I mean look at Thames water and the role of Offwat. It is happening at every level and people like Ben Wallace do their very best to arrest the decline but it is now baked into the system at every level. You are looking at wide scale… Read more »
The decision isn’t surprising but the timing one week before the updated defence paper is very telling.
More cuts tarted up with some buzzwords and rearranging of deckchairs methinks!
I heard a rumour that reg army would drop a further 3k to 70k.
Made to leave as he said what we were all thinking. Ukraine aren’t grateful for our support in their defensive war and no sooner have we donated key defensive supplies they are asking for me. That was politically inconvenient for swarmy boy Sunak so he was either going to be sacked or have to step down….but not before the next general election as the Tory party don’t want to lose yet another constituency by election. With regards Ukraine before anyone replies I am supportive of Ukraine’s war but some thank yous and an appreciation we are donating supplies from an… Read more »
Shame, but I don’t blame him. All the financial promises he won from Boris have been overturned by Sunak.
Like it or not defence needs more money. Yes, it also needs reform (especially procurement) but only cash will dig us out of the current hole we find ourselves in.
I do think this is a very genuine shame. I’ve said before that regardless of political party Ben Wallace has been one of the best Defence Secretaries we’re ever had, post cold war. He very obviously gives a damn and has done tried his level best (with some notably successes) to get UK Defence back into the public awareness, and on a more balanced footing. Naturally it’s a tough job, and I’ve yet to see any government in 30 years who’s ever given a sincere thought to defence. That being said we have seen a shift since 2019 with Boris… Read more »
Well said, agree with all.
Whoever replaces BW will only have a short tenure in the post, so arguably won’t really have any real chance to influence anything, as Labour, rightly or wrongly will form the next UK government (pending a seismic shift in the polls), so John Healy should be the next long term DS I imagine.
Unless we see a shift in the political will to transform defence, then we will continue to tinker around with what we currently have, getting absolutely nowhere in the process. Doesn’t really bode well I think.
I sincerely want you to be wrong….but I do share your feelings sadly.
And I’ve said before he was Tic Toc soldier. Presents well but empty on all accounts.
Waste of space and best ditched.
Hi David, out of genuine interest, do you have a thought on a. Who might be a better candidate? And b. Who was a good previous on and why?
A. Me (Daniele, within the confines of budget, and allowing for not budgeted small wars, would possibly get an extra truck for CSS). 🙂
B. Sir John Hutton.
Wallace manged to get extra money for Defence, twice. Feather in his cap for that.
Talking about Wallace? He got two budget boosts – quite remarkable. Navy is on an upward trajectory.
The world was a very different place in the 90s. Does nobody look at world politics and context before repeating tory spin verbatim?
‘Marked’ do lefties always go tribal and start foaming at the mouth the moment they hear something different to their group think? Or is a learned behaviour?
As for the world was a very different place….that’s interesting, always have an excuse in one’s back pocket I guess. That’s the kind of nonsense I heard from Labour during the time, then the Conservatives thereafter. And I judge that same political stuff the same way today.
Jesus Christ if you take a shit and it’s not of the consistency you expect I take it that would be the Tories fault, as opposed to your own arses? Give your sad rhetoric a break and maybe look past your socialist worker comic, cheers.
Although saying that when you’re not blaming the Tories for the dinosaur extinction period, your other none politically inspired posts are quite interesting and readable. Cheers.
And one more (sorry) having re-read my first reply to you it did come across a bit arsey (excuse the pun) it wasn’t meant so! Cheers.
I think Blair understood our military prowess – he sent the forces to war five times!
Hahaha true indeed Graham, just wished he’d at least funded it better!
Poor Ben. And not a solitary foxtrot was given to someone hopelessly out of their depth. I give you an operator: I needed to know they could function under pressure and fight! UK Secretary of Defence Ben Wallace is retiring after four years. It is the general consensus of opinion in political circles that he has done a good job. In most respects that is true. This former Guards Officer had a good relationship with serving commanders in the armed forces and understood the problems that they were encountering. However, in that four years nothing in the armed forces has… Read more »
Wallace out of his depth? So much so that he was a credible candidate for NATO SG.
Inevitable I suppose, but a pity nonetheless. Ben Wallace always exuded an aura of calmness and professionalism. Though why he thought Boris was ever a good idea I’ll never know.
He also backed Liz Truss in the leadership contest!
The air of unreality and self-delusion that permeates the comments section here regarding Wallace is rather astounding. The UK’s prominence in NATO, historically, is based on two factors – its military strength and its closeness to the United States. First, the UK now has a hollowed-out army and armed forces that can only add peripheral strength to NATO. Second. The UK is not now allied with the United States but with the Democrat Party and the Democrat controlled military and foreign policy establishment. It has very few Republican allies inside or outside the beltway. In fact, it has deliberately insulted… Read more »
Daniel – Love him or hate him but is Donald Trump a very important Ally to the UK in the Republican Party ?.
Does the US ‘control’ Jens Stoltenberg?
Sad to see him go but don’t blame him ,got kick in the teeth for NATO job thanks to the USA Biden Administration.Then probably a dressing down over the Amazon commit ,and defence spending not the level he wants plus maybe more cuts to come .He went above and beyond for Ukraine.Wish him very best for the future.🇬🇧
A good Defence Secretary but a poor politician. TheAmericans have swivelled towards the Germans again. Good luck with that.
Oh Great he will be doing book signings and become a defence expert and tell us what’s wrong with the UK MOD procurement and supply chains issues going forward. think he has become a little frustrated and he has had enough of the entire show.
will go and make Millions from the private sector.
Looks like BW put forward plans which made perfect sense from a military perspective but didn’t look good on the spreadsheet. We will see what comes out in the coming weeks but it looks like Rishi is taking a gamble with our defence. Kier will have an impossible job putting money into defence even if he wanted to unless war breaks out. It is not just defence which has problems and I’m not sure how long the British people will put up with this.
I concur that he has generally done a fine job. He has apparently fought hard for additional MOD funding, got Japan on board for Tempest, and led the line on supporting Ukraine. But inevitably he has made a few mistakes, e.g. not cracking the whip on the British Army’s muddled equipment plans, signing off on the cancellation of two E-7s despite almost no savings resulting, allowing the number of civil servants at the MOD to quietly increase, permitting the RAF to divest itself of any airlifter smaller than the A400, and failing to prioritise better housing and accommodation for personnel.
…and overseeing yet another large cut to the Regular Army and to the size of the tank fleet.
It’s great news as ever 🙄
His district was eliminated after he gouged 230 pounds of expenses claiming his district was too large.
Regardless of the opinion he has of himself had he not decided to step down I think he would have been pushed out anyway.
The Amazon remark was an appalling statement to make even in jest
Ukraine will win but let it fight
Churchill whom I’m sure Wallace is aware of,said in his plea for American help during WW2 said “Give Us The Tools And We Will Do The Job”
He is a politician that actually knows what he is doing he would have been good as head of NATO but senile old Biden stuck his nose in. He shouldn’t stand down if anything we need more politicians like him.