Latest news with #troopnumbers
BBC News
14 hours ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Give new recruits £10,000 to join army, says Sir Ed Davey
New soldiers should be offered a £10,000 bonus to rapidly boost troop numbers to deal with an increasingly unpredictable world, the Lib Dems have government should also distribute pamphlets to make sure every British home is "war-ready" and able to deal with blackouts and chaos caused by the outbreak of conflict or cyber-attacks, Lib Dem Leader Sir Ed Davey Lib Dems claim the plans will "urgently" boost to the number of trained soldiers from just under 71,000 to more than 73, the face of a "barbaric" Russian President Vladimir Putin and an "erratic" US President Donald Trump, Sir Ed said the UK must be better prepared. Over the weekend, Sir Ed visited Estonia to see British troops on what he called Nato's "frontline with Russia".His visit had shown him "it is clear given the threat of a barbaric Putin and the challenge of an erratic Trump, we need to do more to make Britain war-ready," he said."War readiness also starts at home," Sir Ed added, "which is why I am calling for a public awareness campaign aimed at every home in Britain - to make sure we're all prepared for the possibility of a conflict or hostile acts such as major cyber-attacks".Under the plans, new recruits receive a £10,000 bonus after completing training and serving for two armed services personnel would be offered a £20,000 payment if they return to serve two additional starting salary for new recruits to the British Army is £26,334 a a government scheme launched last November, a total of 17,000 armed forces personnel became eligible for retention engineers can get £30,000 if they sign up for a further three years, with privates and lance corporals eligible for £8,000 for four proposed Lib Dem scheme would be limited to 3,000 personnel, including new recruits and re-enlistees, with its £60m cost covered by the main defence plans are drawn up with the expectation that defence spending would rise to 2.5% of national income or GDP by 2027 - as promised by Lib Dems have called for the uplift in defence spending to be funded through an increase of the Digital Services Tax - a 2% levy on the biggest social media and tech companies, which raises about £800m a Lib Dems argue the bonus scheme would "urgently increase" the number of trained UK regular soldiers up to 73,000 - from the 70,752 listed in the most recent official month, the government set out plans for a small increase to the size of the regular army to 76,000 full-time soldiers after 2029 - although this has yet to be has also proposed a 20% increase in Active Reserves "when funding allows" - most likely after 2030 following an overhaul of the armed forces. The government is consulting on plans to regenerate military homes with £7bn of funding by 2025, after bringing the defence estate back under Ministry of Defence (MoD) control last Conservatives have called for an increase in UK troop numbers but have not set out how many they think are week, the shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge set out plans to have military homes run by a housing association to tackle the "poor" state of accommodation and stem an exodus of a third of UK troops were considering leaving the armed forces due to the standard of accommodation, the Ministry of Defence's (MoD) own survey found. Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to keep up with the inner workings of Westminster and beyond.
Yahoo
01-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Troop numbers won't increase for at least four years, says Defence Secretary
Troop numbers will not increase for at least four years, the Defence Secretary has admitted. Ahead of Monday's publication of the Strategic Defence Review (SDR), John Healey said he did not expect the number of people in the Army to rise until the next parliament. It comes despite speculation that Labour could look to reverse the British Army troop cuts made under the previous Tory government. Asked on the BBC's Sunday Morning With Laura Kuenssberg when the 'depleted' Army would reach its target of 73,000 people in the force, Mr Healey said there had been '15 years of a recruitment and retention crisis in our forces', of which the 'last government set and missed targets every year in every service for those 14 years'. 'We've narrowed the gap, but we've still got more people leaving than joining,' he said. 'The first job is to reverse that trend and then I want to see in the next parliament our ability to start to increase the number of our full-time forces.' However, pushed on why this target could not be achieved sooner Mr Healey said: 'My first task as Defence Secretary is to reverse that long run decline, that deep set crisis in recruitment, deep set crisis in retention.' In May last year the number of Army personnel fell below 73,000 for the first time since the Napoleonic era. Under Ben Wallace, the former defence secretary, it was announced that the Army was to be reduced to 72,500 personnel by 2025, scrapping the 82,000 target which had been set in 2015. Troop numbers have been cut by around 27,500 since 2010. When Labour was last in office, the Army had more than 100,000 soldiers. Mr Healey also sidestepped questions about whether he had any guarantee from the Treasury that funding would be committed to boost defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP by 2034. Asked what he would tell Nato allies at an upcoming summit after calls for members to spend 3.5 per cent of GDP on defence, he said: 'The heart of this is not just how much the nations spend, but how we spend it. 'And you will see just as much concentration on what are the capabilities that Nato together needs in order to deter adversaries in the future.' The Defence Secretary said that Monday's SDR would send a 'message to Moscow'. He said: 'This is a message to Moscow as well. This is Britain standing behind, making our Armed Forces stronger but making our industrial base stronger, and this is part of our readiness to fight, if required.' Mr Healey revealed Russia is 'attacking the UK daily' in cyberspace. Asked if he expected a form of real-world attack by Russia on the UK in the coming years, he said: 'We have to be prepared. Nato has to be prepared. We see Putin in Ukraine trying to redraw international boundaries by force... it's part of the growing Russian aggression.' Mr Healey added that is why Nato and the UK are 'stepping up our ability to deter as well as to defend in the future'. 'The world is more uncertain. The tensions are greater but we prepare for war in order to secure the peace. If you're strong enough to defeat an enemy you deter them from attacking in the first place.' Earlier this week Mr Healey announced the British military is to spend more than £1 billion on artificial intelligence and a hacking-attack team. He also vowed to fix the 'dire' state of military homes as part of a £7 billion accommodation reboot to attract more people to join the military. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
01-06-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Troop numbers won't increase for at least four years, says Defence Secretary
Troop numbers will not increase for at least four years, the Defence Secretary has admitted. Ahead of Monday's publication of the Strategic Defence Review (SDR), John Healey said he did not expect the number of people in the Army to rise until the next parliament. It comes despite speculation that Labour could look to reverse the British Army troop cuts made under the previous Tory government. Asked on the BBC's Sunday Morning With Laura Kuenssberg when the 'depleted' Army would reach its target of 73,000 people in the force, Mr Healey said there had been '15 years of a recruitment and retention crisis in our forces', of which the 'last government set and missed targets every year in every service for those 14 years'. 'We've narrowed the gap, but we've still got more people leaving than joining,' he said. 'The first job is to reverse that trend and then I want to see in the next parliament our ability to start to increase the number of our full-time forces.' However, pushed on why this target could not be achieved sooner Mr Healey said: 'My first task as Defence Secretary is to reverse that long run decline, that deep set crisis in recruitment, deep set crisis in retention.' In May last year the number of Army personnel fell below 73,000 for the first time since the Napoleonic era. Under Ben Wallace, the former defence secretary, it was announced that the Army was to be reduced to 72,500 personnel by 2025, scrapping the 82,000 target which had been set in 2015. Troop numbers have been cut by around 27,500 since 2010. When Labour was last in office, the Army had more than 100,000 soldiers. Mr Healey also sidestepped questions about whether he had any guarantee from the Treasury that funding would be committed to boost defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP by 2034. Asked what he would tell Nato allies at an upcoming summit after calls for members to spend 3.5 per cent of GDP on defence, he said: 'The heart of this is not just how much the nations spend, but how we spend it. 'And you will see just as much concentration on what are the capabilities that Nato together needs in order to deter adversaries in the future.' 'We have to be prepared' The Defence Secretary said that Monday's SDR would send a 'message to Moscow'. He said: 'This is a message to Moscow as well. This is Britain standing behind, making our Armed Forces stronger but making our industrial base stronger, and this is part of our readiness to fight, if required.' Mr Healey revealed Russia is ' attacking the UK daily ' in cyberspace. Asked if he expected a form of real-world attack by Russia on the UK in the coming years, he said: 'We have to be prepared. Nato has to be prepared. We see Putin in Ukraine trying to redraw international boundaries by force... it's part of the growing Russian aggression.' Mr Healey added that is why Nato and the UK are 'stepping up our ability to deter as well as to defend in the future'. 'The world is more uncertain. The tensions are greater but we prepare for war in order to secure the peace. If you're strong enough to defeat an enemy you deter them from attacking in the first place.' Earlier this week Mr Healey announced the British military is to spend more than £1 billion on artificial intelligence and a hacking-attack team.
