Gordon Brown’s cuts ‘corrosive to armed forces’

David Cameron seized on fresh evidence to the Iraq inquiry that Mr Brown had imposed a drastic "guillotine" on Ministry of Defence spending when he was Chancellor seven years ago.

The clash came as Labour unveiled its defence blueprint, pledging to build aircraft carriers and cut costs by joining forces with the French.

Former MoD permanent secretary Sir Kevin Tebbit told the inquiry that Mr Brown's cuts had led to a "long-term, corrosive effect" on the armed forces. The issue dominated Prime Minister's Questions in the Commons.

Mr Brown angrily denied he had cut spending for frontline troops and said that as chancellor he had provided the best funding for the MoD in 20 years.

Mr Cameron said witnesses to the Iraq inquiry had made clear that Mr Brown "made a series of bad mistakes that meant our armed forces were not equipped properly when they were sent into harm's way".

Sir Kevin, the MoD's top civil servant for seven years, told the inquiry Mr Brown suddenly slashed military spending six months after the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Sir Kevin said that he had to launch an "across-the-board major savings exercise" to meet the Treasury's "arbitrary" cuts.

Projects affected included destroyers, frigates, minesweepers and patrol vessels, Challenger tanks, artillery and Jaguar aircraft, he told the inquiry. Armed forces personnel and civil servants also had to be cut.

Sir Kevin stressed that defence chiefs got the day to day resources needed for Iraq but admitted the cuts had a long-term impact.

He said: "I was running essentially a crisis budget rather than one with sufficient resources to be able to plan as coherently as well for the long term as we would have liked."

The problem arose when the Treasury realised that Whitehall accounting rules introduced in 2002 to drive down costs had actually allowed the MoD to increase spending, the inquiry heard.

Sir Kevin said: "By the summer of 2003 the Treasury felt that we were using far too much cash. And in September 2003, the chancellor of the day instituted a complete guillotine on our settlement."

Former defence secretary John Reid admitted to the inquiry that while he always "got what we needed" for military action in Iraq and Afghanistan, the MoD's overall equipment budget suffered from cuts.