MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

British Tories promise to slash military top brass and civilian staff

Liam Fox: the MoD 28.000 staff working on procurement almost matches the size of the entire 34.000-strong Royal Navy

A United Kingdom Conservative government would carry out a capability review of Britain's defence establishment, which can be expected to cut the number of military top brass and slash civilian staff at the Ministry of Defence, party spokesman Liam Fox will announce.

The shadow defence secretary will say that it is time for the MoD to “get its house in order” and redirect resources from Whitehall to the overstretched frontline troops fighting in Afghanistan.

And he will promise a “radical root and branch reform” of the MoD's procurement process to improve the purchase and delivery of equipment for the armed forces.

At present, there is one civil servant in the MoD for every two members of the armed forces, while the 28,000 staff working on procurement almost matches the size of the entire 34,000-strong Royal Navy, said Dr Fox.

And he said all three services had questions to answer over the number of officers promoted to the highest and best-paid ranks due to a culture of “Buggins' term”.

Conservatives have already promised a strategic defence review to assess the shape of armed forces that will be needed for the military threats of the future.

But Dr Fox will say in a speech that an in-depth capability review must also be carried out into the structure of the armed forces and the MoD's civilian workforce in order to ensure they are best configured for the tasks they have to accomplish.

“It is time for the MoD to get its house in order,” the shadow defence secretary will say.

“There are questions for all three services as to whether they have an over-abundance of senior posts. How do we reward merit and excellence and end the absurdity of the Buggins' turn culture, and how do we stop the trend where the military seems consistently to shrink while the civil service keeps growing?

”Currently, there is one civilian for every two armed forces personnel in the Ministry of Defence - 16% of the civil service is in the Ministry of Defence.”