Prominent Bracknell politicians on the right clashed last week about what Britain’s armed forces need to prepare for a potential conflict with Russia.
Former MP James Sunderland (Conservative) who is a former army colonel, met Reform’s Campaign manager, John Edwards in Crowthorne Recreation ground during the Crowthorne Carnival.
Whilst they were all smiles on the outside, they fundamentally disagreed on the stewardship of the armed forces under Conservative governments, with John Edwards alleging that Britain’s army, navy and air forces were ‘decimated’ by the Conservatives who has reduced investment to its lowest levels ‘since Napoleonic times’ and Col Sunderland pointing out that John Edwards has ‘no defence experience at all’ and ‘no experience in uniform’.
Colonel Sunderland said: “In 2010 when the conservatives took power, we had a big national debt, we’d had a decade – two decades in Afghanistan and there was a clear need, politically for a peace dividend to invest in other departments and services.
“So there was no clear threat – we weren’t at war. We weren’t engaged anywhere worldwide with a clear threat but clearly defence priorities changed.
“And it wasn’t until really Putin invaded Ukraine that we had the obvious need to increase defence spending to meet the threat. So defence spending is always threat-based. It’s always threat-derived.
“So we’ve done the right thing in increasing defence spending since then. It’s increasing all the time. It has to increase. It’s got to go way beyond the 2.3 percent it is at the moment.
“And the defence investment plan which is obviously produced under a Labour government does go part of the way towards meeting this capability gap. But doesn’t go far enough.”
Cllr John Edwards said: “The Conservatives lowered our armed forces to the lowest levels they’ve been since Napoleonic times.
“James just said it’s only when we got the threat from Russia that we realised we should have changed.
“But I believe in peace through strength, yeah – so the reason we had peace is because we had strength.
“And it’s no coincidence that as soon as our military was decimated by the Conservatives, that we started getting a more unstable world.”
Col Sunderland didn’t agree with John Edwards. He said: “I spent 26 years in the army – I know what I’m talking about and defence is a threat-based activity.
“We have got to spend more on defence right now.
“There was a dividend from the cold war and numbers are lower than they have been traditionally but you know, there are many many reasons why defence priorities vary and there are 17 government departments all competing for money and we’ve got to put our armed forces back up and meet the threat posed by Putin.”
Afterwards James Sunderland said: “We weren’t spending 65 billion on defence in Napoleonic times.
“John Edwards has no defence experience at all. He has no experience in uniform.
“He’s giving the Reform line which is that we haven’t spent enough in defence over the last few decades.
“There are a number of members of Reform in Bracknell who are former members of the Conservative party.
“If they wish to come back to the conservative party, I am sure there will be a route open to them.
“As long as the right is split, the right will continue to undermine itself.”
