Ben Wallace to step down as UK defense chief – Sunday Times

UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace plans to leave the government in the upcoming cabinet reshuffle and will not stand in the next general election, he told the sunday time newspaper.

Wallace informed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of his plans on June 16, but expected to make the announcement later in the summer, the newspaper reported Saturday night. A cabinet reshuffle is expected in September.

“I’m not going to be on my feet next time,” Wallace was quoted as saying. But he ruled out going “prematurely” and forcing another by-election, the newspaper said.

“I entered politics in the Scottish parliament in 1999. That’s 24 years,” Wallace, who has been defense chief since July 2019, told the newspaper.

The development comes days after Wallace controversially said that Ukraine should place more emphasis on showing “gratitude” to “incredulous politicians” in the US and other allied countries who might not be fully convinced of the need to maintain military and economic support for Kiev as it defends the country from invasion by Russia.

“Here’s a little warning: like it or not, people want to see gratitude,” Wallace told reporters at a NATO summit in Lithuania on July 12.

Sunak was forced to try to defuse the diplomatic uproar caused by Wallace’s remarks. The prime minister said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has expressed his gratitude to kyiv’s allies “countless times.”

Wallace’s name was in the mix of potential candidates to be NATO’s next secretary general before the defense alliance agreed in early July to extend Jens Stoltenberg’s term by a year.