Defence Secretary Wes Streeting has acknowledged that some future British Army training exercises have been cut as the Ministry of Defence seeks to control spending.
Responding to Reform UK MP Danny Kruger during Defence Questions in the House of Commons on Monday 19 October, Streeting said Army training exercises would still take place during the remainder of 2026, while accepting that some future training had been cancelled.
Defence Secretary cites spending pressures
According to contemporaneous reporting of the Commons exchange, Streeting said he had encountered an in-year overspend on taking charge of the Ministry of Defence. He defended his instruction that the department and armed forces must operate within their budgets, while pointing to the Government's commitment to increased defence expenditure.
The minister did not, in the reporting available at publication, provide a comprehensive list of cancelled exercises, their costs or the units affected.
Concerns over readiness
Reports of restrictions on Army training had already prompted parliamentary scrutiny in September. In a written answer on 21 September, Defence Minister Lord Coaker said training spending was kept under review and that the department sought to protect essential readiness, operational commitments, safety-critical activity and NATO commitments.
In a separate written answer published on 19 October, Defence Minister Louise Sandher-Jones said the Ministry of Defence did not centrally hold figures for individual collective training hours, adding that training priorities were kept under review to focus funding on activities delivering the greatest operational effect.
The latest exchange adds explicit ministerial acknowledgement of cuts to some future exercises. It does not establish that all Army training has been suspended or that the armed forces are unable to meet their operational obligations.