The British government was accused of operating by leaks and private briefings yesterday after its proposals for the reorganisation of military policy appeared on the front pages of national papers before being announced to MPs.
Britain is to establish new rapid reaction forces capable of deployment to trouble spots around the world at short notice under a far reaching modernisation plan. The government will cut defence spending by £685 million a year by the year 2001-2002, in a move to free resources for health and education.
The Defence Secretary, Mr George Robertson, was to announce the plans to modernise the armed forces over the next 10 years in the Commons yesterday. However, a leak at the highest level saw details of the government's Strategic Defence Review published in the Daily Telegraph, the Times and the Daily Mail among others, before MPs and members of the armed forces had an opportunity to see them. In the House of Commons, Mr Robertson was forced to apologise for the leak after his department launched an "immediate and thorough" civil service inquiry. Speaking on BBC ahead of his announcement, he said: "This is grossly improper and I am extremely angry about it, and I think it is entirely wrong in principle and practice that Parliament should be denied first sight of the detailed recommendations that I am going to be making."
Under the proposals contained in the review, the government plans to commission two supercarriers for the Royal Navy, reduce the number of recruits in the Territorial Army and see an overall saving of 3 per cent in the defence budget over the next three years. Mr Robertson described the plan as "a good deal for defence and a good deal for the country". Defence spending is to fall from 2.7 to 2.4 per cent of GDP.
Earlier, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats rounded on the government claiming that the document was leaked in an attempt to push the "cash-for-access" scandal, involving a policy adviser at Downing Street, off the front pages of the newspapers.
One of the lobbyists involved, Mr Derek Draper, yesterday resigned from GPC Market Access, after allegations in the Observer that he had boasted of his access to government Ministers, and that his Express column was vetted by the Minister Without Portfolio, Mr Peter Mandelson. Downing Street described as "ridiculous" and "absurd" suggestions that the government had designed the leak of the defence White Paper. But during Question Time in the Commons, the Tory leader, Mr William Hague, did not waste any opportunity to accuse the Prime Minister, Mr Blair, of operating a government full of "cronies" with "too few principles".