SMALL high-tech companies in Wiltshire will benefit from Conservative plans for spending on defence according to Secretary of State for Defence Michael Fallon.

Mr Fallon visited Alford Technologies today (APR 29) with Conservative parliamentary candidate Michelle Donelan to learn more about their work in developing highly innovative explosive tools to support Explosive Ordnance Disposal.

The Defence secretary defended his party’s cuts to the defence budget over the last five years reiterating the Conservative’s pledge not to reduce the Army to below 82,000.

He said: “There were defence cuts that were necessary five years ago, we had to make savings right across public expenditure service by service but those redundancies are over now.

“There are no more redundancies, we have committed in our manifesto to protecting the size of the regulars as they are now, no further cuts in the army and we have also committed to spending more on the equipment they need.

“That expenditure will not only give the armed forces what they need, the new aircraft carriers the armoured vehicles, the submarines and joint strike fighters but, of course, it will also benefit British industry and small, nimble high-tech companies like Alford.”

Mr Fallon added that he was excited to see the new Defence College in Lyneham open in September, which is expected to have major economic effects to the area.

Despite the NHS and education dominating the front pages in recent days and defence being back on page 77 of the Conservative manifesto, Mr Fallon said that security of the realm remains a priority for people throughout the country.

He said: “I think it is quite a high priority for people, in recent years they have seen this extraordinary surge of ISIS in the Middle East and they’ve seen Russian aggression in Eastern Europe trying to change international borders by force.

“So I think security rather than defence is an election issue and people want to be sure that the next parliament and the next government will look after their security.”