Brown admits he got his defence sums wrong
Gordon Brown has been forced to admit he misled the House of Commons over defence spending, after an investigation by Channel 4 News FactCheck on 10 March.
Last week the prime minister told MPs defence spending had risen every year in real terms. But today he admitted the budget had in fact been cut for several years.
Channel 4 News FactCheck unearthed new figures after last week’s prime minister’s questions, which revealed Mr Brown had misled the House over defence expenditure.
Today he admitted spending had only gone up in cash terms – that is, ignoring the effects of inflation. “I do accept in one or two years, spending did not rise in real terms,” he said at the start of Prime Minister’s Questions.
Conservative leader David Cameron thanked Brown for his answer. “In three years of asking the prime minister questions I don’t think I’ve ever heard him make a correction or a retraction,” he said.
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For what little it’s worth, since the redesign FactCheck seems to be more about points-scoring over politicians than just revealing the facts, as used to the case. It’s a bit disappointing.
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By the way… Gordon Brown and defence spending, Did he apologise, unreservedly for misleading the House and the Electorate?
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If that was classed as an apology , it just goes to show what a liar the man is .He will have been well aware of the figures and that he lied to Chilcott .He has serious form from when he was chancellor, for twisting the figures.Nothing has changed
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Well done Cathy for some seriously good journalism.
Though I suspect not many in the dog eat dog world of the media will give you much credit.
And I reckon you won’t be invited to Brown’s leaving party?
http://theorangepartyblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/porkie-brown-admits-lying-to-chilcot.html
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But what measure of inflation is being used to say whether defence allocations have risen in real terms? Are we talking about inflation in the price of cornflakes, inflation in the price of tanks?
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Undoubtedly The PM made a serious gaff. But the question should also be asked as to why our military commanders entered this conflict without being adequately financed and properly equipped for this conflict? Top military brass must be held responsible for the unnecessary loss of lives and serious injuries of our heroic soldiers. These so-called military tacticians are weak and gormless idiots who should never have undertaken such a mission without guarantees from the government that all their demands for a properly equipped army were met.
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Do you really think they had much say ,or that Gordon would not have given the promise??. its one thing to promise another to keep it
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Perhaps they, like the rest of us have little choice. This Government jumps in feet first and we have to pay the consequences
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The Government made a decision, rightly or wrongly, to support an invasion of Afghanistan. They obviously consulted all their military advisors as to the likely success of such a campaign and the manpower and equipment needed to fight this war without unnecessary casualties. It is no good ex military commanders complaining that they were not supplied with all the equipment they required. They should have demanded that our armed services possessed an abundance of the very best available equipment and vehicles to fight a very formidable enemy in an extremely hostile and difficult environment.
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Has he still got his sums wrong? The only source I can find for government spending is ‘http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk‘ with some good interactive charts. For 1997 military spending was approx £21bn, however in 2009 military spending was approx £30bn, looking at the Bank of England inflationary calculator this would mean actual military spending has barely kept up with inflation since 1997 as it would be approx £29bn now adjusting for inflation. In PMQ’s yesterday Gordon Brown mentioned ‘defence’ spending is approx £40bn currently but this appears to include approx £10bn for ‘civil defence’, ‘foreign military’,'foreign economic’, ‘defence n.e.c’.
As a proportion of GDP military spending has fallen from approx 2.8% of GDP in 1997 to approx 2.0% in 2009.
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Have a look at http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/media/45655/pm-letter-20100317.pdf for the PM’s less than candid letter to the Chilcott Inquiry. Note from the table attached to that letter that :
1. the columns for ACTUAL expenditure include the net additional cost of operations (payable out of the reserve and not out of the MOD core budget);
2. even on that basis, ACTUAL real terms expenditure under Labour was lower for 97/98, 98/99, 99/00 and 00/01 than it had been in the last full year of the Conservative government;
3. even on that basis, there were decreases in ACTUAL real terms expenditure in 4 years when GB was Chancellor (97/98, 99/00, 04/05 and 06/07) – the last being truly remarkable as it was the year when Afghanistan ramped up, while Iraq continued
4. the MOD core budget was lower for the first SIX years of Labour than it had been in the final full year of the Conservative government;
5. under Labour, the MOD core budget decreased in 97/98, 98/99, 99/00, 02-03 (all while GB was chancellor) and in 07/08;
6. although Brown continues falsely (false because of the end of the Cold War and the clamouring – in which Labour was far from silent – for a peace dividend) to harp on about the defence cuts under Major in the 1990s in real terms, the MOD core budget even now is only 81% of the 85/86 peak under Thatcher.
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