Turner tells of BAE role in ministry

Mike Turner says he was asked by Tony Blair’s former chief of staff to name his preference for defence secretary when the industrialist was running Britain’s biggest maker of military equipment.

The former chief executive of BAE Systems says the conversation with Jonathan Powell took place around the time of the general election in May 2005 which the then prime minister won with a reduced majority.

Mr Turner says he assumed the conversation took place at the behest of Mr Blair – with whom he had previously built up “a good relationship” based around the need to support UK industry.

The industrialist said that in his view the best person for job would be John – now Lord – Reid – who until the poll was health secretary. Mr Turner said: “I felt Mr Reid had a good understanding of industry and was a person who [defence] companies could work with.”

By contrast, Mr Turner said he felt Geoff Hoon – the defence secretary in the Labour government until the election – was “a waste of time”.

After the election, Lord Reid – who had had an earlier spell as armed forces minister during Mr Blair’s period in government and had in the 1990s had a series of shadow defence posts – was appointed by the prime minister as defence secretary.

Mr Powell did not reply to emails from the Financial Times on the issue and could not be reached by telephone.

Mr Blair’s spokesman said Mr Blair did not authorise any conversation between Mr Powell and Mr Turner related to the suitability of Lord Reid as a potential defence secretary.

“Tony Blair appointed John Reid because he thought John understood the armed forces at a critical time in our international engagement,” the spokesman said.

Professor Trevor Taylor of the the Royal United Services Institute, a defence research group, said that on some counts the conversation between Mr Turner and Mr Powell might be regarded as “logical” due to the need for the Ministry of Defence to work with companies such as BAE. “But you could also take the view that this kind of discussion carried risks since it might have given BAE the impression that it had more influence than was the case.”