Shapps is a trusted pair of palms: No 10 defends choice for defence job
Grant Shapps confirmed as new Defence Secretary
Military high brass referred to as on Grant Shapps to combat for additional spending after his shock appointment as Defence Secretary.
Rishi Sunak appointed his shut ally to the important thing function after Ben Wallace give up the submit as anticipated forward of stepping down as an MP on the subsequent election.
Mr Shapps is among the authorities’s most skilled ministers and has held 5 Cabinet posts within the final 12 months, however doesn’t have a army background.
He paid tribute to Mr Wallace for his “enormous contribution” and vowed to proceed the UK’s assist for Ukraine in its “fight against Putin’s barbaric invasion”.
A Downing Street supply stated the defence function has been carried out “very successfully” earlier than by ministers who don’t come from a army background, most notably by Labour’s Lord Robertson who went on to grow to be Nato secretary common.
Sunak defends Grant Shapps job function (Image: Getty)
“Grant has held a number of Cabinet positions and has a huge wealth of experience. The role requires a good communicator as the stakes are very high.”
A supply near the brand new Defence Secretary stated he would proceed Mr Wallace’s “great work” modernising the armed forces.
The insider added: “Grant is a very experienced Secretary of State, has been a member of the National Security Council from his previous roles. While in government, he has overseen government responses to crises including Ukraine, Afghanistan and pandemic and is a very capable and trusted pair of hands.”
No 10 will hope Mr Shapps’ appointment will cool tensions over spending after tensions with Mr Wallace over calls for to spice up Ministry of Defence coffers.
Lord Dannatt, former chief of the overall employees of the British Army, stated Mr Shapps is aware of “very little about defence” and it’ll take him “quite some time to get up to speed”.
Lord Dannatt urged Shapps to stand up to hurry (Image: Getty)
But he urged the brand new Defence Secretary to push for extra funding within the Armed Forces.
“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,” he stated.
“I think 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.
“And 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.
“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?”
Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the Commons defence choose committee, dismissed considerations about Mr Shapps’ data of army issues.
Former armed forces minister Mark Francois (Image: Getty)
“He’s a very competent and capable minister,” he stated. “He understands the Whitehall machine. He’s actually one of the best communicators that is in the Cabinet at the moment.
“He sits on, or has sat on, the National Security Council as well. He’s a pilot, so very familiar with the air domain too and indeed was coincidentally in Ukraine, in Kyiv, last week talking about nuclear power and other aspects too, so very familiar with what’s going on. I don’t need to remind everybody that he will be surrounded by one of the most professional civil service machines in the world.”
Former armed forces minister Mark Francois, a member of the Commons Defence Committee, stated it will likely be an “incredibly tough act to follow” for Mr Shapps.
“I think, to put it mildly, because it’s such a complex department, this is going to be a very steep learning curve for Grant Shapps,” the Tory MP instructed GB News.
“Grant Shapps is a bright bloke, but he’s going to have to come up with the speed very, very quickly.”
It is Mr Shapps’ fifth job in a 12 months after having been enterprise secretary, house secretary for six days underneath Liz Truss, transport secretary and power safety secretary.
Mr Sunak additionally gave a significant promotion to a different shut ally, Claire Coutinho, who turns into the primary MP elected in 2019 to make it to the Cabinet.
The former junior schooling minister replaces Mr Shapps as Energy Security Secretary. She was succeeded by Tory MP David Johnston within the Department for Education. Northern Conservative MPs had been disgruntled that the promotions all went to southern MPs.
A supply stated: “It is a bit of a kick in the teeth that we have lost out most senior northern MPs from the Cabinet and all of the appointments came from the south.”
The MP additionally identified that quite a lot of ministers who’ve introduced they’re quitting on the election stay in authorities, together with Health Minister Will Quince and Scottish Secretary Alister Jack, regardless of now not having “skin in the game”.
Martyn Brown – Daily Express Deputy Political Editor
Rishi Sunak’s shock resolution to nominate Grant Shapps as Defence Secretary has actually raised a couple of eyebrows.
The Government veteran’s lack of army expertise is being seen by some as a strategic blunder.
That stays to be seen.
But it has actually strengthened his place as Prime Minister.
Despite shedding such an impressive Defence Secretary in Ben Wallace, the 2 by no means actually noticed eye to eye.
One is a army man who wished additional cash for the Armed Forces, the opposite a numbers man making an attempt to stability the books as Chancellor and PM.
The Boris Johnson ally was additionally an inherited decide for Mr Sunak as he provided continuity in Britain’s main function to assist Ukraine fend off Russia’s invasion. Mr Sunak additionally wanted political unity in his first Cabinet following the tumultuous endings to Mr Johnson and Liz Truss’s premierships.
But Mr Wallace’s resignation gave him an opportunity to bolster his ranks with loyalists.
Mr Shapps backed Mr Sunak in each Conservative management contests final 12 months whereas new Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Claire Coutinho is among the PM’s staunchest political allies.
When he made his 5 political pledges firstly of this 12 months Mr Sunak had a transparent imaginative and prescient of what he wished to attain.
He was much less clear whether or not Boris Johnson would attempt to mount a coup towards his management.
The former PM has now left Parliament. So has his greatest cheerleader Nadine Dorries. Mr Wallace leaves on the subsequent election and is now not in Cabinet. The Prime Minister, rumoured to be planning a full reshuffle within the coming weeks, will little question use it to reward extra loyal Sunakites.
His political place assured, Mr Sunak can now deal with getting the Tory machine prepared for subsequent 12 months’s anticipated common election.