david cameron and george osborne are at war over treasury plans to order savage new cuts in britain’s armed forces the dispute, one of the first to erupt between the downing street neighbours, has been sparked by fears the treasury plans to slash another £1billion from the ministry of defence’s (mod) budget the chancellor is refusing to guarantee to protect the armed forces from cuts after the election, saying it would undermine his attempts to reduce the uk’s debt the dispute has been sparked by fears the treasury plans to slash £1billion from the ministry of defence’s budget   and chancellor george osborne (pictured left) is refusing to guarantee to protect the armed forces  but the prime minister fears it will damage relations with us president barack obama, who urged him last month not to set a bad example to other nato nations by cutting spending the row was revealed on the eve of a tory revolt over defence in the commons this week up to 30 conservative mps are thought to be backing a bid by john baron, mp for basildon and billericay, to force a protest vote against defence cuts it follows controversy over whether britain will stick to the nato target of spending two per cent of its gross domestic product on defence tory mps claim that if mr osborne gets his way the figure will fall below that level and the mail on sunday has learned that the prime minister shares the rebels’ worries the prime minister fears cuts will damage relations with us president barack obama (both pictured) ‘the stumbling block is mr osborne not mr cameron,’ said a senior conservative ‘osborne has made it clear the mod cannot be exempt from cuts the pm fears it will expose him at nato meetings, where he has been urging others to stick to two per cent ‘he will be called a phoney if he isn’t spending it himself’ one tory mp said: ‘mr cameron has a natural affinity with the armed forces as pm he is constantly talking to generals and visiting troops all over the world he knows the importance of maintaining our front line strength with putin and islamic state causing havoc ‘but you rarely see mr osborne anywhere near a tank or battlefield he is interested in money, not military matters’ mr cameron secretly visited the sas headquarters at hereford last week and is said to have returned more determined than ever to win his trial of strength with the chancellor in a powerful personal plea to mr cameron during talks in washington last month, obama gave him a blunt warning: maintain uk defence spending or weaken nato he said: ‘if britain doesn’t spend two per cent on defence, then no one in europe will’ but military top brass fear the treasury will raid another £1billion a year from mod coffers to try to balance the nation’s books defence spending in the uk is forecast to drop to 17 per cent by 2020, even without further cuts but mr osborne was defended by one influential tory who said: ‘we have ring fenced overseas aid, the nhs and schools if we do the same with the mod it will mean even bigger cuts elsewhere, such as the home office and policing the chancellor has to be fair if we are to get out of the red’ spokesmen for mr cameron and mr osborne said there was no rift no wonder putin feels free to buzz britain with his bombers  by john baron, ex soldier, mp and member of defence select committee at this time of mounting global uncertainty, britain needs a strong defence to deter potential aggressors last week we learned that raymond odierno, the top general in the us army, is ‘very concerned’ by the falling levels of our defence spending – and even suggested that british brigades might have to operate within us divisions on future operations john baron believes britain needs a strong defence to deter potential aggressors  this should certainly make us pause for thought as a bare minimum, britain must abide by its nato commitment to spend two per cent of gdp on defence we are hovering around this figure and forecasts suggest we will shortly fall below the threshold this would be a grave mistake maintaining a capable military can do much to prevent conflict, as nato proved throughout the cold war britain needs to remain a global power to protect our strategic interests and support our alliances we require armed forces of sufficient capability and capacity to respond to any challenge – including the ability to act in an independent, sovereign manner in addition, a successful foreign policy is underpinned by the heft of a strong and well resourced military a shrinking defence budget threatens our ability to lead global opinion, reduces our foreign policy options and sends the wrong message to both allies and potential adversaries alike yet the coalition continues to make cuts, as starkly demonstrated by the decision to replace 20,000 army regulars with 30,000 reservists the royal navy has been reduced to 19 surface ships the last strategic defence review suggested a minimum of 30 the scrapping of the raf’s venerable nimrod means we are without a maritime patrol aircraft no wonder the russians feel they have free rein to fly their bombers and position their submarines around our coasts westminster is becoming increasingly impatient on thursday, mps from all sides of the commons will support my debate demanding that the government should meet britain’s nato commitment the first duty of government is the defence of the realm we ignore history at our peril
the armed forces obama commons treasury osborne tory us 1billion mod cameron
cameron and osborne at war over new treasury plans to cut defence  dispute sparked by fears £1billion may be slashed from mod's budget  chancellor is refusing to guarantee to protect the armed forces from cuts  prime minister fears it will damage relations with us president obama  row revealed on eve of a tory revolt over defence in the commons 