Now Geoff Hoon savages Gordon Brown over Afghanistan war
Geoff Hoon, the former defence secretary behind last week’s attempted leadership coup, is set to inflict further damage on Gordon Brown with the disclosure that the prime minister vetoed the purchase of vital military helicopters.
Leaked ministerial letters reveal how, as chancellor, Brown repeatedly prevented Hoon from ordering life-saving battlefield equipment for Afghanistan and Iraq.
With nothing left to lose, Hoon, who was dismissed as an embittered traitor by Brown’s allies for the failed email plot, has the potential to undermine Brown’s leadership in the run-up to the general election.
The leaked letters show Brown personally overturned earlier Treasury assurances that the Ministry of Defence would be free to spend extra cash on troop-carrying helicopters for Iraq and Afghanistan.
The former defence secretary is expected to be asked about his battles with Brown when he appears before the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war. Should he choose to disclose the full details of the clashes over military resources to the inquiry panel, the result could damage Brown. The evidence of the past week suggests that the former defence secretary is unlikely to mince his words.
In one letter sent in 2004, Hoon warned that, if Brown refused to back down, “We would have to scale back on major equipment programmes.” He went on to claim that the helicopter programme in particular would suffer.
Last night, Hoon refused to comment on the letters, passed to The Sunday Times by Royal Air Force sources.
The leaked letters show how Brown’s actions during the crucial period of 2002 to 2004 meant that military chiefs were unable to buy new helicopters which could now be in service in Afghanistan.
The lack of air support has forced British troops to take dangerous journeys by road, exposing them to deadly Taliban bombs.
Military chiefs have long complained that the Treasury under Brown starved them of resources. Only now, however, can Brown’s personal involvement in the battles with the MoD be disclosed.
The origins of the funding row began before the 2003 invasion of Iraq. On July 10, 2002, during negotiations over the three-year spending review, the MoD received a Treasury letter appearing to give the go-ahead to spend up to £800m on new frontline equipment.
However, months later the Treasury changed its mind. The dispute quickly escalated to cabinet level. It is understood that in late 2002 and 2003, Hoon wrote several times urging the then prime minister Tony Blair to intervene.
On September 26, 2003, the chancellor wrote to Blair and Hoon to say: “I must disallow immediately any flexibility for the Ministry of Defence to move resources between cash and non-cash.” This meant the MoD’s plans to order new helicopters had to be put on hold, and in 2004 the MoD was forced to accept defeat.
However, Downing Street said last night that Hoon had described the 2002 spending review as “excellent” and that the MoD defence board, including the defence chiefs, had full discretion on how to spend that “record budget”.
New claims were made yesterday about how much cabinet ministers knew in advance of last week’s Labour plot led by Hoon and Patricia Hewitt, the former health secretary.
Allies of the plotters claimed that Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, was informed of the coup plan at least 24 hours before the rebel email was sent on Wednesday.
“Peter failed to send any message urging Geoff and Patricia to stop,” said a source. “This has been presented as an idea that Geoff and Pat came up with, but it was more like a Thomas à Becket situation, with the ministers saying: ‘Who will rid us of this troublesome prime minister?’” said a source.
Cabinet ministers have all denied prior knowledge of the coup.
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