Tories in retreat on plans for defence

Tory plans for Britain's armed forces were in disarray today after Michael Howard admitted he could not say whether his party would cut or boost the defence budget.

He made plain his own confusion over the issue as government ministers prepared to attack the Conservatives' spending plans. The Chancellor's spending review included a £3.7billion rise in MoD funding.

At the annual meeting of the Centre for Policy Studies, Mr Howard underlined the lack of clarity in his party's posit ion when he was criticised by the audience for not backing the armed forces.

Mr Howard replied: "What we do intend is to look again at the whole range of things we do in defence. Until we've done that exercise I can't tell you how much we will be spending on defence."

With his personal ratings falling every month , some MPs and activists are worried that Mr Howard is not playing to traditional Tory strengths in areas such as defence.