The Secretary of Defence, Ben Wallace, could potentially resign from his position ahead of the anticipated autumn reshuffle of the British government. This information was reported by Bloomberg, citing The Times. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is said to have already set his sights on the upcoming elections.
The newspaper suggests that Wallace is considering a possible departure, without providing precise sources. According to a source close to Wallace, the minister will make his decision next month, which is said to be unrelated to the current issues facing the British Conservatives.
The 53-year-old Wallace replaced current Speaker of the House Penny Mordaunt as Secretary of Defence when Boris Johnson became Prime Minister in 2019. He retained the position during the brief premiership of Liz Truss and under Sunak. Additionally, he has been largely responsible for the UK’s policy towards Ukraine since the outbreak of the conflict there.
Recently, Wallace’s ambition to become the new head of NATO came to an end when the alliance extended the term of current Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg by a year. Last month, US President Joe Biden referred to Wallace as a “highly qualified” candidate for the position, but no official recommendation was made.
Ben Wallace and the sacrilege of questioning Zelensky
Also this week, Wallace made headlines during the NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, when he stated that “Ukrainian representatives should be a bit more grateful” for the millions of dollars they have received in support. “We are not Amazon,” Wallace said.
