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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Tories ponder major crisis force | Tories ponder major crisis force |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| A future Tory government should set up a dedicated force to deal with national emergencies such as terror and floods, a party policy group has said. | |
| It also suggested increasing the size of the Army and setting UP a national security council to advise on policy. | |
| The group's chairman, Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, said the UK was "ill-provided" for disaster management. | |
| Tory leader David Cameron commissioned the report but is not committed to adopting its recommendations as policy. | Tory leader David Cameron commissioned the report but is not committed to adopting its recommendations as policy. |
| Leaked memo | Leaked memo |
| The policy group on national security is warning that the UK's armed forces are overstretched and there is not enough military capability to help civil authorities during a crisis. | |
| Its report says defending the UK should be a priority for a future Conservative government. | |
| It only needs to be a small force Dame Pauline Neville-Jones | |
| Dame Pauline, who is shadow security minister and the former chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, said the UK was "quite, quite ill-provided for when it comes to a big crisis of this kind". | |
| She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "If you actually look at how the Army is structured, or indeed any of our defence forces, when it comes to the UK, there's nothing dedicated to... organisation of the kind of help which the military have been providing this week. | |
| "It's all on what's called a contingent basis. That's to say if they're available, they're available. | |
| "But there's nothing guaranteed about it. What we feel is there needs to be a small force, and it only needs to be a small force, which is actually readily available, properly trained and has a command centre." | |
| The report accuses the government of damaging the UK's international reputation and the effectiveness of the trans-Atlantic alliance by "naively underestimating the challenge of state-building in hostile environments". | |
| 'Shortcomings' | |
| It says ministers have undermined security at home by treating people from ethnic minority backgrounds as members of groups rather than individual citizens. | |
| The report also states that the government has overstretched the armed forces, leaving them without sufficient reserves. | |
| The report calls for a four-yearly defence review to ensure that military capabilities match up to missions. | |
| While the government and emergency services performed well after the London bombs on 7 July 2005, there were "notable shortcomings", particularly in the clarity of central command and communications, it adds. | |
| The report also says: "Resilience to disruption and attack of the critical infrastructure of the country is inadequate and resources need to be devoted to developing capability outside London." | |
| The recommendation to increase the size of the military comes after the leak of a memo from the head of the Army, Gen Sir Richard Dannatt. | |
| He said there were almost no spare troops because of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. | |
| The national security council would report to the Cabinet on long-term strategies on foreign, defence and security policy. | The national security council would report to the Cabinet on long-term strategies on foreign, defence and security policy. |