Relations between the prime minister and the defence secretary, Liam Fox, were strained last night as plans to build two large aircraft carriers for the navy at a cost of at least £5bn are in jeopardy, after a meeting of the National Security Council chaired by David Cameron. The navy is pressing for the carriers, which would be equipped with US planes costing at least £100m each, in a package that could cost £15bn. Cameron questioned claims by navy chiefs and the shipbuilders that cancelling the contracts would only save £1bn, according to Whitehall officials.
Under existing plans, the navy will also be equipped with new frigates and destroyers. One well-placed official last night said the whole question of which ships the navy will get, and how many, was now "up in the air". The dispute has pitched Cameron against Fox, the defence secretary and supporter of the navy who is at loggerheads with George Osborne over who will pay for a new Trident nuclear missile system. The chancellor says the initial estimated £20bn cost of renewing Trident should come out of the core defence budget. Fox says it should be paid for by a special supplementary budget and said the proposed cuts were "draconian".
In a private letter to Cameron, the defence secretary makes clear his feeling on cuts to the defence budget and goes on to say that the Tories risk "destroying much of the reputation and capital" they have built up with the armed forces. The letter, leaked to the Daily Telegraph, was written the night before the NSC meeting to discuss the strategic defence and security review. In it, Fox says the proposed review was "looking less and less defensible" and were likely to have "grave political consequences for us, destroying much of the reputation and capital you, and we, have built up in recent years."
He warns that the "party, media, military and the international reaction will be brutal if we do not recognise the dangers and continue to push for such draconian cuts at a time when we are at war". He also warns: "Our decisions today will limit severely the options available to this and all future governments." If cuts go ahead he warns the "range of operations that we can do today we will simply not be able to do in the future".
Fox said last night he was "appalled" his letter had been handed to the press and described the leak as "totally unacceptable". He added: "It is entirely normal that ministers should make representations to the prime minister during the strategic defence and security review and the comprehensive spending review. That is an entirely proper part of the process of government. The prime minister is fully entitled to expect that those representations be made in private and kept private."
