The Labour government has criticised the Conservatives’ record on defence procurement, accusing the former administration of leaving major defence projects in disarray.
A newly published Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) report revealed that during the Conservatives’ final year in office, only two out of 49 major defence projects – just 4% – were delivered on time and within budget. The report also highlighted a significant increase in the number of red-rated projects, rising from five to eight, a 60% increase.
Red-rated projects are defined as those facing “major issues with project definition, schedule, budget, quality…which at this stage do not appear to be manageable or resolvable.” The 2023-24 list saw 16% of defence projects red-rated under the Conservatives, compared to 10% in the previous year.
Labour has also highlighted findings from the National Audit Office, which revealed a £17 billion black hole in the Ministry of Defence’s equipment plan during the Tory administration. Similarly, a Defence Committee inquiry from the same period described the procurement system as “highly bureaucratic, overly stratified, far too ponderous, with an inconsistent approach to safety.”
In response, Labour has launched what it calls the biggest defence reform programme in 50 years, led by Defence Secretary John Healey. The programme aims to streamline procurement processes, deliver better value for money, and ensure timely and effective outcomes for the Armed Forces.
A Labour spokesperson stated: “This report lays bare how 14 years of Tory mismanagement left major defence programmes in disarray. The Tories hollowed out our Armed Forces, wasted billions and bungled vital projects. Their credibility on defence is shot to bits.
“This Labour Government is working night and day to fix the broken procurement system we inherited, reform defence and get a grip on Tory delays and overspends.
“We will leave no stone unturned to expose Tory failures, get value for money for taxpayers and fix the foundations of Britain’s defence.”
The Labour government insists its reforms will address deep-rooted issues in defence procurement, ensuring the Armed Forces are better equipped to face current and future challenges effectively.
Not as bad as the 38bn black hole in defence the Coalition Gov inherited back in 2010. Both major parties have been as bad as each other on defence since the end of the Cold War.
Exactly.
Spot on Robert. I’ve been saying that for years -folk have short memories.
Especially politicians!
They do. And I’ve argued with quite a few on this site.
Good to see many posters now acknowledging that both Tories and Labour are equally responsible for this mess.
One hundred per cent Robert. I can’t remember the last time we had a defence secretary who really fought for the armed forces.
Big Ben was pretty good, the issue there was the rest of the government around him wasn’t great.
From an incoming party of government whose election manifesto made no mention of ordering so much as one extra ship, aircraft or armoured vehicle – that’s all it would have took to have been taken seriously as a government committed to national defence.
And given that their first notable act while in power concerning Defence has been to remove (and likely sell) the 2 RN Assault Ships, their argument that the previous 14 years has been one of decline rings pretty hollow as they relentlessly increase the pace of that decline
“And given that their first notable act while in power concerning Defence has been to remove (and likely sell) the 2 RN Assault Ships, their argument that the previous 14 years has been one of decline rings pretty hollow as they relentlessly increase the pace of that decline”
The 2 ships that were already laid up and hadnt been to sea since 2023 and 2017?
HMS Bulwark could’ve gone back to sea, they chose to scrap it instead
2023 isnt exactly a long time ago.
Yes – one of which (Bulwark) that had just completed a multi-million pounds refit
Fair enough can’t really disagree with that assessment as a stand alone statement. But IMHO in a wider context it should look like this :-
6.5 years of “Cold war is over, din’t call me Maggie, I’ll spend nothing and let’s all watch cricket and then have a nice Curry” JM
10 years of “I look nice on TV, don’t call me a Socialist, I’ll suck up to George, degrade the Military and get a lot of folks killed building Sandcastles”. AB
3 years of “I need to ensure a legacy, so strip out / cancel everything, I need to build 2 Aircraft Carriers right next door to my constituency, then retire.” GB
6 years of “call me Dave, I don’t like sandy places, defence is waste of money so cancel everything, I can then give lots of money to other countries to spend on trying to kill each other”. DC
3 years of “I’m really quite nice and need defending, Putin is fine but if the Armed forces can’t deal with my Back Benchers why bother”. TM
3 years of “Booze, lies, Blonds, spend Money on Useless PPE, blame everyone else, sulk and oh what’s this defence thingy about ?” BJ (snigger time).
50 Days of “🤷🏼♂️🤨😡🥾”. LT
1.5 years of “I actually have a good Defence Secretary so let him do what he can, but don’t spend much. Oh he resigned, so I’ll appoint 🤦🏼♂️ 🤹🏼) RS
195 days of “How long can I stall doing anything, blame the previous lot, 🤞🏻 I can get away with it. Oh Poo Mr Tango is back) KS (TBC).
I think that’s a bit more comprehensive.
Sums it perfectly…
‘up perfectly’….
“ 3 years of “Booze, lies, Blonds, spend Money on Useless PPE, blame everyone else, sulk and oh what’s this defence thingy about ?” BJ (snigger time).”
Buuuuuut BJ did order T26 and IRL B2 was green light on his watch, T31 and he invented T32 all by himself!
BJ did also manage to get support together for UKR and displayed something that looked, at least from a distance, a lot like leadership.
He did also give defence a £16Bn uplift but Sunak didn’t roll on with that.
Where he went wrong was not other a siren suit, boxes of very large cigars and a pith helmet….or something like that 🙂
The only thing I would add to that is the geopolitical context and risk profile.
6.5 years of “🎼we won the war, we won the war🎼 the west is great and everyone wants to be the west as it’s just so very good”
13 years of ignore the wars we are fighting they are not real wars as “we won the war we won the war” the west is great and everyone wants to be the west as it’s just so very good.
6 years of…we really know everyone hates the west and is building up …but we need to save money and so let’s just keep pretending “we won the war we won the war, the west is great and everyone wants to be the west as it’s just so very good”
3 years of…shite do we tell everyone there is a new Cold War and a load of mad authoritarian dictators that hate us…Nope Brexit Brexit Brexit and remember “we won the war we won the war” the west is great and everyone wants to be the west as it’s just so very good.
3 years of…Yes the worlds going to shit but well we still need to get it done…not sure what, but it needs doing….let’s sort of remind people that there are some rum lads out there even though “we won the war we won the war” the west is great and everyone wants to be the west as it’s just so very good.
1.5 year of…Ohh my Fucking god we are heading for a world war and what navy, army and airforce was that against ???.what do we do….ummm quick tell everyone it’s all fine and “we won the war we won the war” the west is great and everyone wants to be the west as it’s just so very good.
6 months….what do you mean china has just finished building its invasion harbours….ummm quick do a defence review…
The only thing I would add to that is the geopolitical context and risk profile.
6.5 years of “🎼we won the war, we won the war🎼 the west is great and everyone wants to be the west as it’s just so very good”
13 years of ignore the wars we are fighting they are not real wars as “we won the war we won the war” the west is great and everyone wants to be the west as it’s just so very good.
6 years of…we really know everyone hates the west and is building up …but we need to save money and so let’s just keep pretending “we won the war we won the war, the west is great and everyone wants to be the west as it’s just so very good”
3 years of…shite do we tell everyone there is a new Cold War and a load of mad authoritarian dictators that hate us…Nope Brexit Brexit Brexit and remember “we won the war we won the war” the west is great and everyone wants to be the west as it’s just so very good.
3 years of…Yes the worlds going to shit but well we still need to get it done…not sure what, but it needs doing….let’s sort of remind people that there are some rum lads out there even though “we won the war we won the war” the west is great and everyone wants to be the west as it’s just so very good.
1.5 year of…Ohh my Fucking god we are heading for a world war and what navy, army and airforce was that against ???.what do we do….ummm quick tell everyone it’s all fine and “we won the war we won the war” the west is great and everyone wants to be the west as it’s just so very good.
6 months….what do you mean china has just finished building its invasion harbours….ummm quick do a defence review…
Sums up thirty plus years of irresponsible foolishness…
Cheers CR
And therein lies the truth CR!
How was fatty Wallace a good defence sec? It was just business as usual under him and he didn’t do anything to arrest or recover the multiple unfolding disasters.
He achieved two budgetary increases outside the normal Spending Review process.
Good Day,
All very sad once again! However let’s move on and look to the future. Perhaps an agreed joint Defence budget between the major parties to ensure solid planning for all involved?
Let’s hope the Defence review offers a positive way forward!
Both major parties have responsibility of the mess we are in.
Nick
Other countries that do way better than us on Value for money and understanding the prime importance of having a defence industry do it slightly differently. They agree a force level, incorporate it into law and then regardless of who is in has to fund it.
As a french, i’m grateful we have dga and a military budget adopted every 7 years for stability purpose. Uk should have both: many equipements designed today Will be active after the end of current politicians careers.
Always liked the way the French do things in taking a longer term view. This has allowed domestic industry to develop and supply their armed forces with a lot of French made equipment. Sovereignty is important.
They are all utter shite..now can we just reset back to 1997/8 expend on the new threat level above 1997/8 and build an army, navy and airforce to that risk as 1997 as a baseline.
I cannot believe the new crowd can do worse than the last lot. Suspect that meaningful change will only come about if the MoD can find a way of spending more efficiently. Suspect the Defence Review will be painful.
Government blasts Tories…so Labour defence cuts coming soon.
Labour government 🙄 don’t know how they can come out with this statement when there cutting 2 Assault ships and RFA Vessels etc .Not that Tory were any good honestly God help us 😕
Yes god help us! Despite the clear evidence we should drastically rearm nothing seems to happen! What is going on?
Nick
I know mate theses politicians are on what £70.000+ and can’t see what’s in front of them .Just have a nice cool pint mate 🍺 👍
British politicians today look like staring at a car’s lights coming at them…
This statement appears to me as a preamble to further cuts in SDR 25. A classic political playpiece: “It’s all the previous Government fault – look at the massive funding gap we inherited from them , we have to cut so we can fund some defence projects – it’s not our fault”,
AI (UK based), robots, drones and fusion energy research should be the government’s top priority to develop and keep it local to the UK. I know the current government has thrown in a few quid in this direction but it is just not enough. Imagine if we purchased & became reliant on Elon Musk’s (or anyone else) tech and one day he just decided to switch it all off remotely, the UK would be up the swanny without a paddle. This tech is evolving so, so fast and the UK government seems to be stuck in the mud over these issues.
The problem with defence procurement is an utter lack of project management. All too often defence projects suffer from rampant scope creep. They shoot for the best and all too often when it is finally delivered late and way over budget, it is no longer cutting edge , it is second best.
They badly need people who are strong enough to resist the scope creep, only let through changes to the scope that are absolutely need.
Many defence projects have a gestation period of 10 years or more. Many things change over that time so a revamp of the Requirement is often needed.
Defence spending need to be on a 10year cycle, requirements are set and LOCKED stop moving goal posts and then changing the height. Funding agreed and fixed for the projects and can’t be cut by next bunch of C*^t5 that get voted in.
Need an article about Gravehawk.
By far the most interesting news of the past few months.
They all have one thing in common, ABSOLUTELY BLOODY USELESS, 💯 🙄
Politicians will always play politics and blame each other. No surprise there!
Some defence secretaries do make sensible decisions. For example, Liam Fox scrapped Nimrod MRA4. I was at school with Liam and, although we do not share political views, I admire his gumption to scrap a programme that industry insiders knew was an expensive fiasco for at least a decade. For my part, I was interviewed by the clueless-clowns who were engineering (?) Nimrod software systems.
Anyway, there are other stakeholders to consider besides the politicians:
🔵 I admire our military personnel (Navy, Army, Airforce) but they are neither businesspeople nor technologists. Their skills are rightfully in warfare!
🔵 Likewise, the MOD lacks skills in business-management and technology.
🔵 The UK defence industry lacks skills in technology, and especially systems-engineering (SysEng).
Nothing will change until the skills gaps are filled. Competence rules!
Problem with blaming the last lot, let’s be blunt they both do it. Is why didn’t the public vote in the opposition, erm because they were even more shite than who got elected. We have lived in a 2 party system so the only reason Tories or Labour have been in power is because they were the least worst option. And frankly on defence, the last parliament may have left a defence black hole but if we’d voted in the opposition(Corbyn) we wouldn’t of had a miliary and this site would had to rename its self The UK peacekeepers and humanitarian aid journal. 😀
All very amusing, politicans come and go, but do not overlook a major fly in the ointment – MOD procurement – in my day it was called MODPE (Procurement Executive). It’s had many names, reorganisation, expensive quarters, glossy PR and back slapping but project and financial management management appears largely to escape them.