Cameron pledges 'no further cuts to army, navy or air force'

Off By Sharon Black

Home Office among departments that have agreed reductions, but Treasury still short of the £11.5bn it needs to find

David Cameron has pledged there will be no further cuts to Ministry of Defence staffing. The news came as the government announced that a further six – mainly minor – spending departments had reached agreement with the Treasury ahead of the spending review for 2015-16, which is due to be announced at the end of the month.

Danny Alexander, the Treasury chief secretary, had earlier infuriated the Ministry of Defence when he said: “Of course, in a department that has more horses than it has tanks, there is room for efficiency savings without affecting our overall military output, which of course is what we need to maintain. And finding efficiencies, reforming the ways our services operate are critical to ensuring that what I want to achieve, which is maintaining the quality of our services.”

But a more emollient Cameron said: “We’re not going to be making further cuts to the numbers of our army, navy or air force: they know what they have available.

“No department can be excluded from being efficient from saving money, from making sure we get the best …read more