Wallace decides to step down as UK defense minister

British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace has decided to step down from his post and from politics in general, about which he told in an interview with The Times.

Earlier July 15 edition published the same information, but with reference to sources. Among the possible candidates for the post of secretary of defense, sources named Deputy Treasury Secretary for Economic Affairs John Glen, Deputy Interior Minister for Security Affairs Tom Tugendhat and Deputy Foreign Minister for Indo-Pacific Affairs Anne-Marie Trevelyan.

The next reshuffle in the British government is expected this fall, during which time Wallace plans to leave his post. He also assured that he would not leave his post in advance.

“I started politics in the Scottish Parliament in 1999. It’s 24 years old. For over seven years, I had three phones next to my bed,” he said.

According to Sky News, speculation regarding the fate of the defense minister has been going on for about a month. Last week, Wallace, responding to criticism from Ukraine over the supply of weapons, said that the UK is not an Amazon delivery service. He also urged Kyiv to be more grateful for the support it has already received. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak did not agree with Wallace’s words, who said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had expressed gratitude for support many times.

Great Britain is one of the most ardent supporters of Ukraine in the West, it supplied weapons to Kyiv even before the start of the special operation, but then the volume of military assistance increased many times over, and the range of supplies was also expanded. Thus, in May 2023, Wallace confirmed that the kingdom was supplying Ukraine with Storm Shadow cruise missiles with a range of more than 250 km.

One of these missiles was able to be picked up after the interception by Russian fighters in the special operation zone, about which told Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Tsarskie Wolves military-technical center and ex-head of Roskosmos, in July. The missile was eventually handed over to one of the Russian defense enterprises for further study, which caused concern in the NATO countries.