UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace may step down ahead of an expected autumn reshuffle of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s cabinet being done with an eye toward the 2023 election, the Times reported.
The newspaper reported that Wallace is mulling whether to depart, without saying how it obtained the information. Sky News, citing a person it didn’t identify, reported that Wallace is likely to make a decision next month.
Both reports said that the minister’s decision would be unrelated to the current issues facing the Conservative Party, which is trailing heavily in polls.
Wallace, 53, replaced Penny Mordaunt as Defense Secretary when Boris Johnson took charge as prime minister in 2019. He’s retained the post under two subsequent premiers, Liz Truss and Sunak, and has helped shape the UK response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Most recently, Wallace’s ambitions to win the top job at NATO were dashed as the alliance extended Jens Stoltenberg’s tenure as secretary general for another year. Last month, President Joe Biden said that Wallace would be “very qualified” to lead the NATO alliance, but stopped short of backing his bid.
Wallace won notoriety at this week’s NATO summit in Vilnius after telling reporters that Ukrainian officials should show “a bit of gratitude” for the billions of dollars in military aid provided by allies. “You know, we’re not Amazon,” he said.
