Fox accused of passing the buck after Royal Navy jettisons 1,000 personnel

DEFENCE Secretary Liam Fox has been accused of shirking responsibility for government defence cuts after more than 1,000 Royal Navy staff, mostly sailors, were laid off, with 350 of them forced out of their jobs.

Dr Fox sparked fury when he attacked top brass and senior officials in the Ministry of Defence for allowing the defence budget to run out of control.

The Tory minister said in a newspaper interview yesterday that there had been a “complete breakdown of trust” between the MoD and the rest of Whitehall in the final days of Gordon Brown’s regime.

“I think there had been a loss [of trust], and in the latter part of the Brown government there was an almost complete breakdown between the MoD and the Treasury and the MoD and No 10,” he said.

“I think the MoD consistently dug a hole for itself that it eventually found that it could not climb out of,” Dr Fox went on. “It is irritating to hear some of those who helped create the problem criticising us when we try to bring in a solution.”

However, shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy said that Dr Fox should take responsibility for his actions and not try to blame others for the cuts he was now imposing.

“Liam Fox is not the victim, but the author of his defence review, which has left holes in our equipment programme, and is sacking thousands of personnel, including those who have served on the front line,” said Mr Murphy.

“Morale is already low – entering into a blame game will only make matters worse. We need solutions, not accusations.

“Savings must, of course, be made. However, the scale of cuts imposed on our armed forces is the choice of this government and this government alone.”

Admiral Lord West, a former head of the Royal Navy, said Dr Fox should be “a bit careful” about trying to pin the blame for the MoD’s budget failings on top brass.

“When I appointed captains to ships, I expected them to run that ship well. If they kept telling me how bad it was before, I sacked them,” he said.

The row broke as 1,020 Royal Navy personnel were told they were being made redundant – around a third of them compulsorily – as part of the first round of military job losses.

Although 810 sailors applied for redundancy, only 670 of them were granted voluntary severance.

Personnel who risked their lives during the Libyan campaign – including crew members of HMS Cumberland, which helped to rescue British citizens from the North African country in February – were believed to be among those being sacked.

The head of Royal Navy manning at the MoD, Commodore Michael Mansergh, acknowledged it was a “painful process”.

He said: “We have looked at the skills that we no longer require. We are doing what we are being asked to do, which is to make sure the navy is the right size for future operations.”

However, Lord West, who was a security minister in the Labour government, described the cuts as “dangerous” and warned the navy would no longer have the “global reach” to meet its commitments, such as protecting Britain’s overseas dependencies.