Grant Shapps knows ‘little about defence’ and may not push for spending, military experts fear

Grant Shapps knows “very little about defence” and will take “quite some time to get up to speed” with the brief, the former head of the Army has said of the new Defence Secretary.

There is concern that Mr Shapps, who was appointed on Thursday after the resignation of Ben Wallace, may not push hard enough for greater military spending due to his loyalty to Downing Street.

Mr Shapps is considered a close ally of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Unlike Mr Wallace, he does not have a military background.

Lord Richard Dannatt, who was chief of the general staff of the British Army between 2006-09, warned the defence brief was a “complex portfolio” and expressed concerns Mr Shapps may not priotise military funding due to his loyalty to Mr Sunak.

“Now we have a new Defence Secretary who knows very little about defence, and it’s a complex portfolio. It will take him quite some time to get up to speed,” he told Sky News.

“I think there is a risk that certainly the debate on resources for defence stagnates, at least until Grant Shapps can get his head around his portfolio.”

Lord Dannatt said the military would be hopeful that he would push for greater investment in the Armed Forces, as his predecessor did.

Mr Wallace and Mr Sunak openly clashed over defence spending, with the then defence secretary claiming that Britain’s military has been “hollowed out”.

Mr Sunak turned down a request for £10bn of additional military spending from Mr Wallace and reduced a target of increasing UK defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP by the end of the decade to 2.5 per cent.

However, he did announce a funding boost of £5bn over the next two years in order to boost nuclear technology and replace munitions sent to Ukraine.

Lord Dannatt said “what the chief of defence staff and the single service chiefs will be hoping from the new Secretary of State for Defence is that he will listen to the concerns that they have within the wider context of the insecurity of the world”.

“Although he may well have been appointed as someone who is going to support the Prime Minister and help the Conservative Party in its general election campaign, they will be hoping that he will really understand defence and push the case for defence, not just for the Ministry of Defence’s own benefit, but for the benefit of the whole country,” he said.

“Because there is a very strong case that we should be investing more in defence than we currently are. Ben Wallace knew that. Ben Wallace was arguing for it. Is that discussion going to continue? Or will Grant Shapps choose to go quietly?”

Former chief of the Royal Navy, Lord Alan West, also had concerns about whether Mr Shapps would provide a strong enough voice for Armed Forces funding, warning that his job was to protect the military rather than appease the Treasury.

Asked about speculation that Mr Shapps’ loyalty to No 10 means he will not demand the spending increase called for by his predecessor, Lord West said: “I think that could be right and what I hope is that when he settles into the position and as he gets in and gets his briefings, he realises the full horror of actually how the shortfalls are affecting our military capability.”

“I hope that the minister responsible for our Armed Forces makes him change his view about how hard he pushes for the funding the British armed forces require,” he said.

“His job as the Secretary of State for Defence is to look after offence to this nation. His job is not to keep the Treasury happy by not putting too much pressure on them to fund our Armed Forces properly.”

Mr Shapps has served in a range of posts since entering Government, acting as secretary of state for transport, home secretary (for a week), secretary of state for business, energy, and industrial strategy and secretary of state for energy and net zero in the space of a year.

During his 18 years as an MP, he has also been a housing minister and chair of the Conservative Party.

The Ministry of Defence and No 10 have been approached for comment.