Liam Fox

Two weeks ago you raised a variety of questions for the Shadow Defence Secretary.  ConservativeHome selected twelve of them and Dr Fox answers them all below.

James Maskell: "The Conservative Party policy is to stay in Iraq. How long do you think that British forces should stay in Iraq?"

Like everyone else here I want to see our troops come home as soon as possible, but that can only be done when we are confident that the Iraq we leave behind is a functioning, stable nation.  To depose a brutal dictator only to leave behind a failed state would be a terrible legacy.  Worse still, it would see Iran left standing as the regional superpower – a situation US and British foreign policy has spent almost thirty years trying to avoid.  If we leave Iraq prematurely the answer to the question “who won the Iraq war?” will be: Iran.  That would be the worst answer of all.

Mark Clarke: "Conservatives often talk about overstretch in the armed forces. Do you agree that they are overstretched? And, if so, would you fix this by reducing troop commitments (in which case, where?) or increasing the size of the military (in which case, how much?)"

The Armed Forces are certainly overstretched. This year we will spend only 2.2% of our GDP on defence.  This is the smallest proportion of our national wealth that we have spent on defending our country since 1930 – yet we are asking our troops to do far more than the Government’s own Planning Assumptions have budgeted for. The gaps between going on tour are shrinking, putting soldiers and their families under ever-increasing strain.

Until we have, as a Party decided what our foreign policy objectives are, we cannot formulate an appropriate defence policy – you cannot create a credible defence policy in a vacuum – so we cannot decide whether we need to spend more to match our level of commitments, or reduce our commitments to match our current level of spending. What is unavoidable is that we cannot continue as we are. The Party’s policy review committee is engaged in this at the moment, and I would not want to pre-empt their conclusions.