I do not normally go around feeling sorry for Cabinet ministers. As a new boy in the House of Commons, like nearly all of my intake if they were honest, I wanted to be one. I am going to make an exception of Des Browne, the defense secretary since last year and a decent and intelligent man, who is a square peg in a round hole. He looks miserable, out of his depth and in serious trouble.
Labour governments tend to have problems finding suitable defense secretaries. Few Labour MPs have any special knowledge or interest in defense matters. Des Browne, a lawyer with an excellent grasp of child law, comes across as Prime Minister Tony Blair’s spokesman in the powerful Ministry of Defense rather than the man in charge of it. I can think of Conservative Defense secretaries, such as Lord (Peter) Carrington and Michael Heseltine, who were thrilled to be given the job, happy to be surrounded by servicemen and made a big contribution to Britain’s defense.
After Glasgow University Des Browne got into Parliament as Labour MP for Kilmarnock and Loudoun, in South East Scotland, in 1997. He became chief secretary to the Treasury in 2005 under Gordon Brown. His closeness to Brown is part of his problem today.
Although the government spends over 32 billion pounds a year on defense, this is insufficient when it is conducting operations in two very hostile theaters of war, Iraq and Afghanistan. Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown seems to have given priority to keeping defense expenditure in proportion to the national income. As a result servicemen and their equipment are looking badly frayed at the edges.
Sensibly, not long after moving from the Treasury to the Ministry of Defense, Des Browne decided to visit Basra to find out what Britain’s 8,000 troops were doing in Southern Iraq. Not so sensibly he made an overoptimistic press release following his brief visit:
“Basra is calm and British forces are working hand in hand with their Iraqi and coalition partners. Suggestions that the city is, in some way, out of control are ridiculous.”
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki visited that city a few days later and put it under a curfew.
Des Browne likes to avoid excess publicity if he can. The Financial Times described him as “so low-profile as to be virtually invisible in the eye of the general public”. But in the last few days he has been in the hot seat — and seen to be wilting.
While on April 5 the United Kingdom welcomed back, with a profound sense of relief, the 15 sailors and Marines captured by Iran and treated as hostages, there is a feeling this was a shameful incident. When the House of Commons returns after its Easter recess the defense secretary will face a grilling. The boarding party appeared to have been taken by surprise and not to have been given suitable protection. Why was there no air cover for this officer-led boarding party at the crucial moment? While the sailors and Marines were placed in solitary confinement and threatened with long sentences, there is also concern over their behavior on Iranian television.
Des Browne most unwisely agreed with a suggestion by the Royal Navy that the former captives be allowed to sell their stories to newspapers and the television companies. This was totally against the services’ traditions and Gen. Sir Richard Dannatt, the head of the British Army, at once issued an order that such an arrangement would not apply to the British Army.
Des Browne’s decision was strongly attacked by senior politicians and retired serving officers and by the families of those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. I suspect his staff had failed to warn him of the importance of his ruling and how it would be seen in Britain. He was also concentrating on forthcoming elections in Scotland which look as if they will be a disaster for the Labour Party.
Faced with the massive outcry, and after consulting the Armed Services chiefs, the defense secretary reversed the decision to allow the 15 to profit from their ordeal. He agreed that “we have not reached a satisfactory outcome.” However, by now the damage had been done. Leading Seaman Faye Turney had already sold her story for a sum believed to be around 80,000 pounds. Des Browne appeared as naïve and out of touch, and both the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats have turned on him. He will have to be moved, after Tony Blair has stepped down in a few weeks, to a more appropriate position in the government.
