DEFENCE

BRITAIN’S military must stop being used as a ‘cash cow’ for overseas aid missions, the ex-armed forces minister has said.

Sir Mike Penning warns operations such as the Royal Navy’s task of rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean are ‘draining military capabilities’.

The senior Conservative says the Ministry of Defence must stop being seen as a ‘soft option’, warning that the backbone of the UK’s operational defence capability is being ‘stripped out’.

Sir Mike, who served eight years as a Grenadier Guard, says the cash for the Trident nuclear deterrent should be removed from the defence budget to free up more cash. ‘The MoD has got to stop being a soft option. It needs to spend what it has wisely and stand up to those who see it as a cash cow,’ he said.

The defence budget for 2016-17 was £35billion – of which around £2billion was earmarked for the annual operating costs of Trident.

Sir Mike warns that if the costs of the nuclear deterrent were not taken out of the budget then the MoD would be forced to cut more warships and troops.

‘The core and backbone of our operational defence capability are being stripped out at a time when our enemies are testing us every day’. He also says that the Department for International Development (Dfid) should shoulder the cost of more missions.

Sir Mike Penning, a former soldier who served eight years as a Grenadier Guard, said the cash for the Trident nuclear deterrent should be removed from the defence budget to free up more cash.

Britain should be proud of its commitment to aid spending, ‘but not if the cost is adversely affecting our military capability’. Sir Mike adds: ‘The question to be asked is why it should be our ships and troops being used when there are other ways to help.’

The Navy has been providing ships to rescue migrants and destroy smuggling boats in the Mediterranean since 2015.

Sir Mike says the aid ministry should be using its funds to lease other ships so naval assets could be freed up for other tasks. Emphasising the point that Royal Navy ships have helped to rescue thousands from the sea, he simply asks whether that is the best use of naval resources, and asks: ‘Why can’t we use some of the 0.7 per cent we have committed to international aid to lease ships that are much more suitable for the job?’

This would ‘free up the Royal Navy to do what they are trained and equipped to do – namely protect us… We should be using the Department for International Development cash where it is needed, not draining our military capabilities.’

A spokesperson for Dfid said: ‘Dfid works closely with the MoD to increase security overseas, and both departments want to use both the aid and defence budgets in the wisest way to boost our global influence and make the UK safer.

‘The International Development Secretary has had a series of meetings to see how the two departments can better achieve their aims.’

TRUE, with defence spending pared to the bone, former Armed Forces minister Sir Mike Penning asks a pertinent question. Why, he wonders, are we diverting warships from defending us to the job of rescuing migrants from the Mediterranean? There should be enough cash in our bloated foreign aid budget to lease far more suitable vessels for this task. Equally, we should ask what has happened to properly joined-up government?