British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace has submitted his resignation, MTI reported. The 53-year-old politician indicated last month that he intends to retire from political life after nine years of government work. He held the Ministry of Defense for four years.
the According to a BBC report Possible successors included James Heppey, Minister for the British Armed Forces, John Glenn, Secretary of the Exchequer, and Grant Shapps, Secretary of Energy. Downing Street finally announced on Thursday morning that III. King Charles also agreed to appoint Grant Shapps.
(The announcement was made after our article was published, so the article and title have been modified accordingly.)
Shapps previously served as Minister of the Interior for a six-day term in Les Truss’ cabinet, but has also served as Minister for Business and Minister for Transport.
In a statement, Sunak thanked Wallace for his work and said he fully understood his resignation after serving in three demanding ministerial positions in eight years: former defense minister, security minister and minister for Northern Ireland.
Wallace wrote in his resignation letter: “I was elected to Parliament in 2005, and after all these years it is time to challenge myself in areas of life that I neglected and explore new opportunities.” He added that the Ministry of Defense is more modern, better funded and more trusted than the one he ran in 2019.
Wallace was frequently in the news in connection with the invasion of Ukraine, and played a major role in organizing aid to Ukraine by the British government. However, in recent months he has made sharp comments, for example, saying in July that Ukraine should not forget that it had to convince some skeptical politicians that it was worth standing up to Ukraine with billions of pounds in aid against Russia. “The UK is not an Amazon arms delivery company,” he said in Vilnius.
Wallace was also very popular in NATO, where the United Kingdom was heavily involved in strengthening the military alliance after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Previously, he was also mentioned as a candidate for the post of Secretary General of NATO, which was eventually filled by Jens Stoltenberg. Although the appointment of the British Minister of Defense would have been supported by many member states, the plans could have failed because US President Joe Biden did not support them.
