Aircraft carriers not safe from UK defence cuts, defence secretary confirms

Defence secretary John Healey told MPs that £500m of cuts he annnounced on Wednesday will not be the last

Defence secretary John Healey has refused to rule out mothballing one of Britain’s two aircraft carriers as a result of the strategic defence review being carried out by Sir Keir Starmer’s government.

During his first session in front of the newly constituted Commons defence select committee, Mr Healey was asked directly about the fate of the carriers – HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales – by Labour MP Emma Lewell-Buck.

Mr Healey, who had been discussing the strategic defence review he launched when he took office in July, warned MPs that the government needed to show “realism and honesty the commitments we can make to allies and we make in committing our own forces”.

John Healey appears before the defence select committee (PA)

On Wednesday, he had given a surprise statement in the Commons about £500m of cuts, including scrapping the Royal Navy’s two remaining amphibious assault craft, 31 helicopters (14 Chinooks and 17 Pumas), the watchkeeper drones and a frigate HMS Northumberland.

But he had been clear that the cuts “will not be the last difficult decisions I will have to make”.

As he appeared before the committee with rumours about the fate of one of the two aircraft carriers, Ms Lewell-Buck asked: “Would you be able to put an end to the rumours about our carriers? Are they safe or is one going to be mothballed?”

Mr Healey made it clear that the fate of the two carriers is under consideration in the strategic defence review.

He said: “There are some really important capabilities we have across the board. The strategic defence review is looking across the board at everything.”

HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, Britain’s two aircraft carriers, meet at sea for the first time (Royal Navy)

He added: “I absolutely don’t want you to take that any part of the program we have got at the moment are in jepopardy. This is a question of scrutiny, not jeopardy.”

Earlier he told the defence committee: “This is a serious moment that I come before the committee. Defence intelligence will reveal today that the front line is now less stable than at any time since the early days of the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022.

“We have seen in recent weeks a very clear escalation from Putin and his forces. They have stepped up attacks on the energy system in Ukraine ahead of winter, they have stepped up attacks on civilian centres killing children, they have deployed at least 10,000 North Korean troops to the battle front line.

“And there are unconfirmed media reports today of Russia firing a new ballistic missile into Ukraine, which we know they have been preparing for months.

“While the Ukrainian actions on the battlefield speak for themselves, be in no doubt that the UK government is stepping up our support for Ukraine, determined to continue doubling down our support for Ukraine.

“This is what I told [Ukrainian defence minister Rustem] Umerov in a long call on Tuesday. It is what I discussed with the US defence secretary Lloyd Austin on Sunday."

The committee’s Labour chair Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi pressed him on a timetable to reach 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence spending but he refused to commit to a date.

Mr Dhesi warned him that “authoritarian countries like Russia and North Korea” are already on a war footing with their spending.

Mr Healey pointed to the commitments to reach 2.5 per cent in the Budget but said MPs would need to wait for the strategic defence review to be published next year.