Liam Fox: defence review is under way
The Defence Secretary said that as well as conducting the review, his priority was to ensure troops in Afghanistan were well equipped.
“We’re all concerned about the political excitement here but we have to remember that in Afghanistan our armed forces are involved in a very brutal and bloody war and we have to ensure that they have everything they need to do the job that we have asked them to do in our name,” he said. “So the number one priority has to be to look after our armed forces,” he said.
“There will be a number of challenges because the time I spent working as a doctor with the armed forces taught me that it’s not just about our frontline forces themselves, it’s also about the families. And we have to pay more attention to service families and their needs as we also have to do with service veterans. I think that in this country we need to treat our veterans in the way that the best of other countries treat their veterans.”
Fox also added that the coalition government arrangement with the Liberal Democrats would allow the Trident replacement programme go ahead.
“We’ve got a very clear agreement that we will continue with the nuclear deterrent. The Liberals have said that they would like to look at what other alternatives in terms of costs of the nuclear deterrent will be. I will certainly want to scrutinise the cost of the Trident replacement programme but the ultimate responsibility is to keep Britain safe and protect the generations of the future from whatever threats may emerge in a dangerous world.
“We cannot play fast and loose with the country’s security and we will not.”
Fox: defence review is under way – Defence Management.
