Britain names new defence minister with vow to keep up support for Ukraine
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Former energy minister Grant Shapps is seen as a safe pair of hands with a penchant for using spreadsheets in his work.
PHOTO: REUTERS
LONDON – Former energy minister Grant Shapps replaced Mr Ben Wallace on Thursday as Britain’s defence minister, a surprise move that reaffirmed London’s support for Ukraine while raising questions over his lack of experience with the military.
Shoring up his team before a national election expected in 2024 and after Mr Wallace resigned
“I am looking forward to working with the brave men and women of our Armed Forces who defend our nation’s security. And continuing the UK’s support for Ukraine in their fight against Putin’s barbaric invasion,” Mr Shapps said on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, after his appointment was announced by the government.
Britain, a key defence supplier for Ukraine, is trying to increase its production of weaponry, particularly artillery shells, to try to help Kyiv push back Russian forces and replenish its own stockpiles.
Moscow has condemned Britain’s military help to Ukraine, saying it is only extending the conflict.
Several lawmakers in the governing Conservative Party expressed surprise over the appointment of Mr Shapps, questioning his experience in military affairs.
Seen as a safe pair of hands with a penchant for using spreadsheets in his work, Mr Shapps, 54, visited Kyiv earlier in August and announced export finance guarantees.
He also visited the kindergarten once attended by the young son of the family he hosted after they fled the invasion.
Mr Shapps, who says his Jewish relatives were chased out of Latvia, Poland and Russia several generations ago, described hearing about his Ukrainian guests’ experience as “sobering”.
It will be his fifth job in a year, after serving as the minister for transport, interior affairs, business, and energy security and net zero, where he was replaced on Thursday by former children’s minister Claire Coutinho.
In July, Mr Shapps joked to journalists about his role as the face of the government’s “crisis communications”.
He recalled a junior official telling him, “there isn’t anybody in the entire world who would want to be in your shoes right now”, when he had to defend a former adviser for breaching Covid-19 restrictions.
Mr Wallace confirmed his resignation as defence minister in a letter to Mr Sunak, offering the government his continued support while warning the Prime Minister not to see defence as a “discretionary spend”.
Mr Wallace, who helped lead Britain’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, said in July that he wanted to step down after four years in the role and would quit as a lawmaker at the next national election to pursue new opportunities.
Seen as a strong advocate for increased spending on the armed forces, Mr Wallace had hoped to be a potential successor to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg, but the former Norwegian prime minister’s contract was extended by another year.
A former captain in the British army, Mr Wallace, 53, was appointed defence minister in 2019 by his friend and ally, former prime minister Boris Johnson, after holding junior ministerial roles in earlier governments.
Mr Wallace, alongside Mr Johnson, soon became an ardent supporter of Ukraine after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, cajoling other nations to help supply requests for weapons from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
But his frustration over not getting the Nato post earlier in 2023 bubbled over at the military alliance’s summit in July, when he said Ukraine needed to show gratitude and not treat its allies like “Amazon”.
He later said in Ukrainian on Twitter that his comments “were somewhat misrepresented”, and he instead wanted to emphasise that London’s relationship with Kyiv was not transactional but more of a partnership. REUTERS
