UK Defense Secretary expected to resign

Wallace, who has held the position since July 2019, was one of the candidates touted in the Western press as a possible replacement for North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary-General Janes Stoltenberg.

However, the 31 NATO members decided to keep Stoltenberg at the helm of that bloc until October 2024, although his term originally ended in 2022.

The British defense secretary’s candidacy for the post of head of the Atlantic Alliance lacked White House approval, even after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made efforts to intercede on his behalf with US President John Biden, the newspaper recalls.

But the publication links Wallace’s possible resignation to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s plans to make changes in the executive branch to “present public opinion with a new team” ahead of the general election later next year.

Additionally, the constituency that Wallace once ran for will be eliminated for the 2024 election.

Last year, the current defense secretary was among the favorite figures within the Conservative Party to replace outgoing Prime Minister Liz Truss, although Sunak was ultimately elected.

Wallace is a strong supporter of the delivery of new types of weapons, including long-range missiles, to Ukraine, where President Vladimir Putin on February 24 last year ordered a military operation to protect the population of the insurgent Donbass region.

mem/to