Who is former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace?

FORMER Defence secretary Ben Wallace served in the role since 2019, but stepped down in August 2023.

He was the longest serving Tory in the role, and will now return to the backbenches, before stepping down at the election.

Who is Ben Wallace?

Ben Wallace was born on May 15, 1970, in Kent.

He went to public school Millfield in Somerset and then trained as a cadet at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and joined the Scots Guards in 1991.

He was promoted to lieutenant, then captain, and was a member of the party sent to Paris to bring home the body of Princess Diana after her death on August 31, 1997.

In June 1998 he stepped down from active duty and entered the world of politics.

He initially became a Conservative Member of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, before being elected as the MP for Lancaster and Wyre in 2005.

After the constituency was abolished in 2010, he gained the new seat of Wyre and Preston North.

He has served as a whip, the Northern Ireland Minister and is the UK’s longest serving Security Minister, from 2016 to 2019.

He supported Remain during the Brexit campaign.

Wallace became the Secretary of State for Defence on July 24, 2019, and stepped down on 31 August 2023.

What does the Defence Secretary do?

The Secretary of State for Defence holds responsibility for the business of the governmental department department.

As stated on the government website, some of their responsibilities include:

• Strategic operations and operational strategy
• Defence planning, programme and resource allocation
• Strategic international partnerships between US, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, Nato
• Nuclear operations, policy and organisations
• Strategic communications

During an October 20 meeting, Wallace updated the House of Commons on the latest incidents in the Ukraine war, with him detailing a Russian missile release over the Black Sea.

During the briefing, he said: “I would also like to share with the House details of a recent incident which occurred in international airspace over the Black Sea.

"On September 29 an unarmed RAF RC-135 Rivet Joint, a civilian-style aircraft on routine patrol over the Black Sea was interacted with by two Russian armed SU-27 fighter aircraft.

"It is not unusual for aircraft to be shadowed and this day was no different.

"During that interaction however, it transpired that one of the SU-27 aircraft released a missile in the vicinity of the RAF Rivet Joint beyond visual range.

“The total time of the interaction between the Russian aircraft and the Rivet Joint was approximately 90 minutes. The patrol completed and the aircraft returned to base.”

Mr Wallace went on to note that Russia blamed the missile release on a "technical malfunction".

In 2021, he fumed that it was "b****cks" that British animal lover Pen Farthing and his Afghan staff had been denied evacuation from Kabul.

The rattled minister hit back at the former Royal Marine - who wanted his animals airlifted out too - and raged: "We have to prioritise people not pets."

Pen Farthing did eventually get himself and his animals out on August 28, 2021, two days before the final British evacuation flight.

Is Ben Wallace married?

Wallace married Liza Cooke in 2001.

She worked as a part-time parliamentary assistant in his office until April 30, 2019.

They met when she was a researcher in the Scottish Parliament and Wallace was a MSP.

They have three children - two sons and a daughter.