He accused a 2015 defence review of outlining “fantasy levels of efficiency savings and then spending commitments from the efficiency savings before they were realised”. He was also a minister when the 2018 National Security Capability Review, which updated the 2015 SDSR, was published when Gavin Williamson was Defence Secretary. The Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition carried out a review in 2010 when it came to power, with Liam Fox the Defence Secretary. “In the 2015 one it had pretty much fantasy levels of efficiency savings and then spending commitments from the efficiency savings before they were realised. “If memory serves me right, I think we were going to have £11billion in efficiency savings and then spend £7billion on equipment – neither of which came in either on budget or indeed matched the efficiency savings.

Source: Daily Mirror October 05, 2020 17:34 UTC