Tories Propose MoD Cutbacks

A Conservative government would consider slashing the number of civil servants posted to the Ministry of Defence, Shadow Cabinet member Liam Fox said today.

Dr Fox said the Tories would review staffing levels to ensure there was "the right balance of personnel, both in and out of uniform".

According to the Opposition party there is one Ministry worker for every two serving soldiers.

The Lib Dems have already suggested they would cut 10,000 "desk jobs" at the department.

Dr Fox said it was time the MoD got "its house in order" and looked at redirecting cash to front line operations.

Speaking at a defence conference in London, the Shadow MoD Minister said: "With a £35bn unfunded black hole in equipment programme, at a time when we are asking our armed forces to do more and more, this government has brought us to the brink of a defence crisis of unprecedented scale in modern history."

A capabilities review would look into why the military appears to be "shrinking" while the civil service "keeps growing", Dr Fox said.

"Currently, there is one civilian for every two armed forces personnel in the Ministry of Defence. In other words the total of civilians in the MoD is larger than the Royal Navy and the RAF combined," he said.

"We need to do a proper capability review which looks at all aspects of manning and force structure to ensure that we have the right balance of personnel - both in and out of uniform."

However, Forces Minister Bill Rammell branded the Tory proposals "misguided".

He said steps have been taken to carefully reduce the number of civilian personnel, with staffing being cut from from 109,000 to 85,730 over the last four years.

(PR/GK)