PM 'clarifies' evidence to Chilcot and admits defence spending fell over several years, as top brass had claimed

Published on Wednesday 17 March 2010 21:43

GORDON Brown was yesterday accused of making a failed attempt to rewrite history when he had to admit that he had cut defence budgets in some years, despite previously saying he had always increased them.

The Chilcot inquiry set up by the Prime Minister to look at the lessons that could be learned from the Iraq war was told by Mr Brown that he had increased defence spending in real terms "year on year".

But yesterday it was revealed that this was not true and in fact, in three of the years since Labour came to power, defence spending had been cut in real terms.

A document produced by the House of Commons library showed that, as chancellor, Mr Brown cut spending by 400 million, 1.5 per cent, in 1999-2000; 700m, 2.1 per cent, in 2004-5; and 100m, 0.2 per cent, in 2006-7.

The Prime Minister accepted that he made an error when he was challenged on the issue by Conservative MP Tony Baldry at Prime Minister's Questions yesterday. Mr Brown said: "I am already writing to Sir John Chilcot about this issue. Because of operational fluctuations in the way the money is spent, expenditure has risen in cash terms every year, in real terms it is 12 per cent higher, but I do accept that in one or two years defence expenditure did not rise in real terms."

The revelation has given support to the claims of former military chiefs, who accused Mr Brown of not telling the truth over defence spending and said it had been very difficult to get the money needed for operational matters. These include former general and defence chief of staff Lord Guthrie, who accused the Prime Minister of "dissembling" at the Iraq inquiry.

At the time, Lord Guthrie said: "He cannot get away with saying, 'I gave them everything they asked for'. That is simply disingenuous."

There has been similar criticism from Admiral Lord Boyce, another former defence chief, and General Sir Richard Dannatt.

The Conservatives have been demanding that Mr Brown appears again before the Chilcot inquiry to clarify his statements on defence spending.

Yesterday, shadow defence secretary Liam Fox said: "This is a humiliating climbdown for Gordon Brown, as his attempt to rewrite history has failed and his fantasy figures have been exposed.

"He has made repeated and fundamentally false claims, misleading parliament, the public and, worst of all, the armed forces and their families.

"I was pleased that Sir John Chilcot did not rule out calling Gordon Brown back in front of the Iraq inquiry, and it is now crystal clear that the Prime Minister has some serious explaining to do."

General Sir Mike Jackson, the former chief of the general staff, said yesterday that he was annoyed by Mr Brown's repeated claims of a real-terms rise, "but it is for him to explain".

While there had been a "modest" overall rise in spending since 1997, defence had not been given "the right resources to do what it is being asked to do operationally", he told BBC Radio 4's PM programme. "We still have soldiers living in pretty gruesome accommodation, for example."

Gen Jackson said there was "considerable unhappiness" within the Ministry of Defence at the level of settlements received during the height of the Iraq conflict.

Liberal Democrat defence spokesman Nick Harvey said: "Gordon Brown should do more than simply clarify the matter with the Iraq inquiry. He should apologise for the fact that, under his watch, our troops have not had the equipment they need."