Brown 'suppressed defence report'

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"Incompetent" decision-making was costing the Ministry of Defence (MoD) up to £2.5 billion a year, the government review was said to have found.

Commissioned by former Defence Secretary John Hutton and led by ex-MoD aide Bernard Gray, its findings were due to have been published before MPs broke up for the summer recess.

But its release has been delayed, with the Prime Minister announcing last month that the report would now form part of a further defence review.

Channel 4 News quoted an unnamed MoD official claiming that Number 10 had "panicked" at its findings and intervened to prevent its publication.

The report had concluded up to £2.5 billion a year was being squandered because of delays to procurement projects that the MoD could not afford to pay for, the programme said.

The Tories accused the Government of wasting money that could be spent equipping frontline troops in Afghanistan, with Shadow defence secretary Dr Liam Fox saying the findings were a "damning indictment of 12 years of incompetence".

He went on: "By trying to suppress this report, the Prime Minister has demonstrated that he cares more about the reputation of Labour than he does about the wellbeing of the armed forces. Gordon Brown, as Chancellor, was never willing to fund Tony Blair's wars; now that he is Prime Minister, he is trying to cover up his mistakes."

Defence Minister Kevan Jones said that Mr Gray was "working very closely" with the Government towards a defence procurement green paper planned for early next year.

Mr Jones refused to comment on the report but said he did not recognise the £2.5 billion figure and rejected any suggestion that defence procurement was incompetent.