After 4 years in the British Ministry of Defense .. Wallace intends to step down

British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace announced in an interview published Saturday that he will step down in the upcoming cabinet reshuffle and will not run in the next general election.

Wallace played a prominent role in the efforts of the Western Allies to support Ukraine against Russia, Britain proposed him to succeed Jens Stoltenberg as Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). But he did not get the decisive support of the United States to take office, Stoltenberg’s mandate was extended at the head of the coalition.

The newspaper “Sunday Times” quoted Wallace as saying, “I will not run (for parliament) in the next election.”

The newspaper said Wallace told Prime Minister Rishi Sunak last month of his intention not to stand in the general elections that will be held by the end of next year.

But he will not resign “prematurely” from Parliament to avoid holding by-elections, and will resign from the position of Minister of Defense in the next cabinet reshuffle expected before September, according to what came in his interview with the “Sunday Times”.

Ben Wallace, 53, said the decision not to run was not due to his belief that the Conservative Party would lose to the Labor Party, which is leading in opinion polls, but rather because his constituency in the northwest of England was canceled under the recent changes to the determination of districts.

Wallace, a former officer in the British army, has been a member of parliament for 18 years, and is the longest-serving Conservative defense minister since the era of the late Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Ben Wallace during a session of the British Parliament

He is the only senior minister to survive the tumultuous transition of the premiership from his political ally Boris Johnson to Liz Terrace and then Rishi Sunak.

He had held the security portfolio under Theresa May before becoming defense minister in 2019.

Wallace enjoys strong support from members of the Conservative Party, and has long been a candidate for leadership of the party, but he never ran for office.

“A difficult situation”

Ben Wallace said in his interview with the newspaper that among his accomplishments Increase the defense budget By 24 billion pounds ($ 31 billion), considering that an increase in defense spending will be necessary in the coming years.

He predicted that the world would be “more dangerous and more insecure” by the end of the decade.

He added, “I think we will find ourselves in conflict. Whether it is cold or hot, I think we will be in a difficult situation.”

The British Defense Secretary did not rule out that Britain might be drawn into a conflict in Africa against extremist groups, and expressed concern about the impact of Chinese expansion in the South China Sea on regional policies and nuclear proliferation.

With regard to Ukraine, he said that Russian President Vladimir Putin, if he loses the war, may search for new targets, such as submarine cables that secure Western communications and energy supplies.