The man tasked with defending Britain is now engaged in open warfare with his own junior minister. This morning Ben Wallace returned fire on Veterans’ Affairs Minister Johnny Mercer after the latter accused him of posturing ahead of the budget. Speaking to LBC, Wallace reminded Nick Ferrari that Mercer is only a junior minister, and “luckily doesn’t have to run the budget“. For those wondering how two Ministers ended up fighting each other, here’s a brief recap:

At the end of January, Wallace told Sky News “Defence has been hollowed out for years“, and “the British Army has fallen behind its peer group.” The next day, Guido revealed audio of Johnny Mercer saying Wallace had been “disingenuous” and his claims were “fundamentally not true” at an event for the Coalition for Global Prosperity. Comments he initially denied even making, until Guido published the audio…

Mercer then doubled down on his claim, telling LBC “it is obviously not credible to say that the money has been taken out of defence.” Now Wallace is pushing back with a department-measuring contest, pointing out he’s in charge of 224,000 staff, while Mercer only has “12 people in the office”. “He’s not the Secretary of State”…

Now a third soldier has entered the battle – Johnny’s wife Felicity Cornelius-Mercer:

It’s war…