Gen Sir Richard Dannatt victim of 'dirty tricks' campaign

[SO19]

General Sir Richard Dannatt victim of 'dirty tricks' campaign
Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:01AM BST 06/07/2008

General Sir Richard Dannatt, the head of Army, has become the victim of a "dirty tricks" campaign, The Sunday Telegraph has learned.

Senior Ministry of Defence (MoD) officials have begun briefing against Gen Dannatt, the head of the Army, suggesting that his possible promotion to head of Britain's armed forces has been blocked by the Government following his calls for improved pay and conditions for soldiers. They have claimed that Gen Dannatt has become a "loose cannon" whose judgement the Prime Minister no longer trusts.

Details of the anti-Dannatt briefings emerged following the disclosure that Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the chief of the defence staff, decided to extend his appointment by a year.

The move immediately lead to suggestions that it was a tactic designed to prevent Gen Dannatt from being promoted to head of the armed forces.

Senior Army officers have told The Sunday Telegraph of their "intense anger" at suggestions that Gen Dannatt is no longer being considered for the most senior post in the armed forces.

They are blaming the whispering campaign on a strong lobby of senior RAF and Royal Navy officers, in Whitehall, who fear that their organisations might suffer if an Army officer becomes the next head of the armed services, especially as further budget cuts are expected in the future.

"The decision as to who will replace Sir Jock simply hasn't been made", said one senior officer. "Sir Jock decided that he wanted to extend in post which is within his remit and has been done by many other CDSs and he chose to as well. He is a driven man and is not ready to retire. That does not mean that General Dannatt has been ruled out. He has just as much chance as the head of the Navy and the RAF."

Another defence source said: "This amounts to a dirty tricks campaign by some in the MoD who don't want to see an Army officer at the top of the tree. The Army wants Gen Dannatt to become the CDS, the question is does Dannatt want the job. He has a large farm in Norfolk and is the president of the Royal Norfolk Show. He has another life outside the military, which many senior officers don't have. That said, I am pretty sure that he would relish the challenge."

A growing number of Army officers already believe that both the Navy and the RAF should be reduced in size so that extra resources can be pumped into the Army.

For the foreseeable future, they claim, the Armed Forces will be committed to operations in Afghanistan and, to a lesser extent, Iraq and while the campaigns will require a balance of forces from all three services, the brunt of the effort will be felt by the Army. They argue that the Army should get the lions share of future budgets.

Critics of Gen Dannatt claim that he has been a thorn in the side of the Government since he took over from Gen Sir Mike Jackson. In an interview in 2006, he said that British forces needed to leave Iraq "sometime soon" because our troops had become part of the problem in Iraq.

In a recent interview he also said that some British servicemen were paid less than traffic wardens and that he hoped this would be acknowledged by the Armed Forces Pay Review Body, who decide on the level of service pay.

While it has been assumed that Gen Dannatt's comments have been out of kilter with government thinking, aides of the general claim that he has a very good relationship with both Gordon Brown and Des Browne, the defence secretary.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence insisted that no decision has yet been made as to who will succeed Sir Jock as Chief of the defence staff.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... paign.html