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Ben Wallace has hastily cancelled an early afternoon appearance before the Commons defence committee for an urgent trip to Washington DC, prompting speculation as to the purpose of the sudden visit.
Ben Wallace has hastily cancelled an early afternoon appearance before the Commons defence committee for an urgent trip to Washington DC, prompting speculation as to the purpose of the visit.
James Heappey, a defence minister, said “my boss Ben Wallace is in Washington this morning” in an interview in Sky News and offered a cryptic explanation of his presence there. He suggested that Wallace would be having “the sort of conversations” that had to take place face to face.
Heappey also said that the MoD was doing “a good job keeping our nation safe at a time of incredible global insecurity” – although it was unclear exactly what he may been referring to.
A day earlier, questions were raised after a beleaguered Liz Truss did not appear in the Commons to handle an urgent question about the conduct of her government. Penny Mordaunt, deputising, had told MPs she had a “genuine reason” for not being present – but the reason was not explained and it is not clear if it is related to Wallace’s sudden travel.
Wallace had been due to take questions from the committee on a range of issues, including political engagement with the US administration on military operations, the W93 nuclear missile and US protectionism and export controls.
Given Russia has escalated attacks against Ukraine following the bridge attack, this seems like the sort of thing we would expect?
Unfortunately, yes. Escalation is how he does it. Severe escalation would be a tactical nuke in Ukraine and NATO has already warned that it would invoke a severe response of some kind, while being constructively ambiguous, and it's hard to see that as something other than military (what sanctions are left?). Mining of undersea infrastructure would be another severe escalation.
Liz Truss tomorrow: We have appointed a new defence secretary and decided that we are reversing the decision to go to war. We are now not at war with Russia.
Liz Truss tomorrow: We have appointed a new defence secretary and decided that we are reversing the decision to go to war. We are now not at war with Russia.
Liz Truss Thursday: Baron Lebedev has accepted my unconditional surrender.
Liz Truss tomorrow: We have appointed a new defence secretary and decided that we are reversing the decision to go to war. We are now not at war with Russia.
And I apologise to the country as I never realised my actions of war declaration would impact the markets.
Nobody made me aware that the markets would react neagtively or there was any correlation between my policies and the markets.
But I took swift action in surrender so that I can focus on our energy policy.
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