(Young Fabians) At a recent talk to Young Fabians Shadow Defence Minister, Jim Murphy MP, gave a glimmer into the recommendations that will come out of the soon to be released Labour defence policy review. Murphy bemoaned that in the past while Labour is seen as the natural party of the NHS, that the Conservatives are perceived as the party of the military, however in the era of Osborne’s cuts even the Hawkish Liam Fox isn’t able to truly defend that perception.

One of the key findings that Murphy spoke about is that an in-depth procurement review will allow Labour to set out how they propose to match the correct strategy to Britain’s global ambitions. Before the election last year the Conservatives hammered the government on the issue of helicopter procurement in Afghanistan. The 2010 Conservative Manifesto published a graph highlighting the difference in helicopter numbers between the UK and the US, going on to describe how Labour mismanagement has ‘endangered lives’ partly due to being ‘too slow to provide the equipment, such as helicopters, which our Forces on operations have badly needed’.

Once in government the Conservatives have proved unable to match their promises with actual delivery. As Dan Jarvis MP pointed out recently “having demanded more helicopters for operations in Afghanistan prior to May 2010, they have now cut the order for Chinook helicopters by almost half, and as a result of the delay in placing the order they will be too late to have a real impact in Afghanistan, if the Prime Minister’s withdrawal timetable is to be adhered to”.

So is the government now guilty of the supposed ‘mismanagement’ they criticized in opposition?

One key procurement issue that Jim Murphy is on the attack with is the issue of the retiring of Britain’s aircraft carriers, a controversy that could become as embarrassing for the Conservatives as helicopters were for Labour.

David Cameron has defended the decision to scrap existing aircraft carriers before building replacements, telling the BBC in September that they did not hamper the UK's effort. Of more political importance was the Prime Minister attacks on "a lot of armchair generals who said you couldn't do it without an aircraft carrier, they were wrong."

However the government has been attacked by two senior critics over the past few months on this front whose credentials cannot be dismissed as ‘armchair generals’. In June, with the war against Gaddafi in full swing, Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, the First Sea Lord, launched a stinging criticism of the coalition’s defence policies. Sir Mark specifically pointed out that it would have been far cheaper and more effective militarily to fly jets from HMS Ark Royal, rather than launching air attacks from bases in Italy. By contrast the French were able to conduct twice as many sorties as the UK land based contingent because they had a carrier available to compliment their land based aircraft. This month Admiral Lord West, who was Gordon Brown's security adviser when he was prime minister, also came out to say that the country's defence is "not safe in coalition hands" and that "as the reductions bite we will become a different nation".

Jim Murphy MP has been consistent in his defence of the argument to maintain carriers, writing that “it is vital our troops get the equipment they need when they need it…..Ark Royal is being sold like a second hand car. This is an undignified way to treat a ship that has protected our country for all these years”.

Amidst continued crisis in North Africa and the Middle East, the fact that Britain, unlike France, does not have an aircraft carrier it can put to sea makes little strategic sense. Murphy has spoken about how the real test of a government is how it responds to events, the hole in the heart of Britain’s navy is simply more evidence of government policies driven solely by the need to cut budgets deep and fast, regardless of the consequences.

James Denselow is a member of the Young Fabians and a Labour Councillor in Brent

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