Wing Commander Angus MacIntyre has resigned from the British Armed Forces after 40 years of service to become the first Armed Forces spokesman for Reform UK. MacIntyre stated that his decision was driven by what he perceives as decades of underfunding and neglect of the military by successive governments.
MacIntyre, who served globally in various demanding environments, including during the Troubles in Northern Ireland and in Afghanistan, described the treatment of service personnel and veterans as "disgraceful." He highlighted the significant reduction in military personnel since 1986, from 330,000 to 148,000, and pointed to a stark disparity in government spending between welfare and defense, with £330 billion allocated to welfare compared to £60 billion for defense.
"We see the disgraceful treatment of our veterans, who face prosecution from activist lawyers and the political establishment merely for doing their jobs under extreme pressures," MacIntyre wrote. He also criticized the procurement process for military equipment, describing it as a "byword for waste, delay and indecision," contrasting it with the swift equipment delivery for Ukraine.
As part of Reform UK, MacIntyre plans to advocate for a substantial increase in defense spending, aiming for 3% of GDP by 2030 and 3.5% by 2035. The party also pledges to support veterans, proposing to pardon those convicted for carrying out orders and to terminate ongoing prosecutions within 100 days of taking office.
MacIntyre's career included postings to places like Sierra Leone and Mogadishu, Arctic warfare training in -30C conditions, and desert training in 50C heat. He was part of the body-recovery team for an RAF Nimrod that crashed in Afghanistan, killing 14 personnel. He also worked with the United Nations, the Somali National Army, and spent a year at the Pentagon. He believes that Reform UK is the only organization capable of making the necessary changes to modernize and properly resource the British Armed Forces.