Defence secretary Ben Wallace to quit Westminster

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Ben Wallace has announced he will soon quit as UK defence secretary after four years in the post, and will not stand in the general election which is due to take place by late next year.

The 53-year former captain in the Scots Guards was first elected as an MP in 2005 for Lancaster and Wyre and before that spent four years as a member of the Scottish Parliament. He now sits in parliament for the constituency of Wyre and Preston North.

He became security minister in 2016 before being promoted to defence secretary in 2019.

He has served as defence secretary under three prime ministers and was previously touted as a future leader of the Conservative party.

Speculation about Wallace’s intention to quit British politics has been brewing in Westminster for months, not least after he made clear his aspiration to become the next Nato secretary-general. That aim was thwarted after US president Joe Biden refused to back his candidacy.

Only a week ago people close to Wallace told the FT that he was not planning to quit politics, claiming the speculation was “rubbish”.

However in an interview with the Sunday Times the MP said he had decided to leave the cabinet at the next reshuffle, which is expected as soon as September.

Potential successors as defence secretary are likely to include John Glen, chief secretary to the Treasury, and security minister Tom Tugendhat, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

Wallace said the decision was not related to the fact that his constituency is being scrapped in a redrawing of electoral boundaries.

The opposition Labour party enjoys a huge opinion poll lead and more than 40 Conservative MPs have announced they will leave Westminster at the next election.

Wallace played down the idea that he would take up a job in the defence industry, saying he could leave politics and defence entirely.

“I’m quite happy to go and work at a bar,” he told the Sunday Times. “I feel quite fulfilled, and that gives me lots of options. I sometimes think I’d just like to go and do things I love, like Formula One or horseracing — just do something completely different.”

Wallace is a close ally of former prime minister Boris Johnson and ran his abortive campaign for the party leadership in 2016.

After Johnson quit last summer, Wallace surprised some colleagues by ruling himself out of the contest to replace him, despite his reputation of being popular with the party’s grassroots members.

He said his proudest achievement as defence secretary was ending a long period of cuts to the Ministry of Defence, unlocking “genuinely new money” and convincing Downing Street that defence was “core”.

He warned that Britain could find itself in a conflict within years. “Towards the end of the decade, the world is going to be much more unsafe, more insecure. I think we will find ourselves in a conflict. Whether it is a cold or a warm conflict, I think we’ll be in a difficult position,” he told the Sunday Times.