6-7-2023 (LONDON) UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has announced that he will not seek re-election in the next general election and will step down at the next cabinet reshuffle. In an interview with the Sunday Times, Wallace stated that he will not quit prematurely as a Member of Parliament, but will resign as defence secretary before the next cabinet reshuffle. The decision was not based on his belief that the Tories will lose the election, but rather because his constituency in northwest England is being scrapped under boundary changes.
Wallace, a former British army officer, has been a leading figure in Western allies’ support for Ukraine against Russia and was the UK’s pick to succeed Jens Stoltenberg as NATO secretary general. However, he failed to get crucial US backing to succeed him, and Stoltenberg has now extended his term at the head of the alliance.
Wallace has been in the UK parliament for 18 years and is the longest-serving Conservative defence secretary since Winston Churchill. He was the only minister in a senior post to remain in the turbulent transition from his political ally Boris Johnson to the short-lived Liz Truss and then Rishi Sunak.
During his time as defence secretary, Wallace boosted the defence budget by £24 billion ($31 billion) and said higher defence spending would be crucial in the years ahead. He predicted that the world will be “much more unsafe, more insecure” by the end of the decade and that the UK could be dragged into conflict in Africa against Islamist groups.
Wallace voiced concern about the effect of Chinese expansionism in the South China Sea on regional politics and nuclear proliferation. He also warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin could “lash out” if he loses and would look for fresh targets, such as undersea cables carrying Western communications and energy supplies.
