U.Ok. prime minister picks Cabinet veteran as protection chief after Ben Wallace resigns

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Thursday picked his authorities’s power secretary to take over as protection chief in a Cabinet reshuffle following the resignation of Ben Wallace, a number one promoter of the U.Ok.’s help of Ukraine.

Grant Shapps mentioned he was honored to be Britain’s subsequent protection secretary and paid tribute to the “enormous contribution” Mr. Wallace made to Britain’s protection and international safety the previous 4 years.

“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 U.K.’s support for Ukraine in their fight against [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s barbaric invasion,” Mr. Shapps mentioned.

Mr. Shapps was elected to Great Britain’s House of Commons in 2005 and has held quite a lot of high-level positions in authorities. He has a lot much less safety and protection expertise than his predecessor. Mr. Wallace graduated from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, the U.Ok.’s equal of West Point. He spent seven years within the military as an officer within the Scots Guards regiment earlier than he entered politics.

In his resignation letter, Mr. Wallace mentioned the Defense Ministry is “more modern, better funded and more confident” than the group he took over in 2019.

“I genuinely believe that over the next decade, the world will get more insecure and more unstable,” he wrote. “We must not return to the days where defense was viewed as a discretionary spend by government and savings were achieved by hollowing out.”

With his in depth army and authorities expertise, Mr. Wallace was thought-about a number one candidate for the highest civilian place at NATO, however the leaders of the alliance opted to increase the contract of present Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg for a yr.