The Government will reveal on Thursday that the cost of UK military operations in Libya is £250m so far, according to sources in Whitehall.
Earlier this week, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, said the cost of the campaign was “hundreds of millions”.
Speaking to Sky News, Mr Alexander admitted the bill for the operations was mounting.
The Ministry of Defence will set out how much the Nato-led mission has cost in a written Commons statement.
When military strikes against troops loyal to Colonel Gaddafi began in March, Chancellor George Osborne told MPs the bill would be in the tens, not hundreds, of millions of pounds.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has come under pressure over his critical remarks about military chiefs speaking out about defence cuts.
The head of the Army, General Sir Peter Wall, joined his Navy and RAF equivalents in questioning military capability in the future under a tougher economic climate.
On Monday, David Cameron said the military should stick to the fighting and “I’ll do the talking”.
Labour leader Ed Miliband picked up on the comment during Prime Minister’s Questions, accusing him of being “crass and high-handed”.
“When our military chiefs raise concerns, legitimate concerns about the conduct of our operations, surely it’s not the right thing to say: ‘You do the fighting and I’ll do the talking’.
“In retrospect, wasn’t that very crass and high-handed?”
Mr Cameron responded by saying he had “huge respect” for the Armed Forces’ top brass.
“The only point I’ve tried to make in recent days is that, when you’re at war… in Afghanistan and Libya, I think it’s very important, whether you’re a political leader or military leader, to think very carefully about what you’re about to say,” he said.
But the Prime Minister also appeared to indicate there has been a review of the recent Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) in response to a question from Mr Miliband.
Mr Cameron told MPs: “One of the reasons for having a National Security Council that sits weekly is to ask, have we got the right resources? Do we have the right strategy?
“And we’ve had a review of the national security and defence review over the last year.”
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Labour’s shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy said the statement was “incredible”.
He said: “The Prime Minister has to publish this supposed review or accept that he has made a serious mistake.
“This will be news to the whole defence community, who will want to assess the findings.
“For months the Prime Minister has been saying a review of the defence review is unnecessary.
“The only people not confused about the Government’s defence policy seem to be the senior military, who are clear that the Government’s defence review did not survive its first contact with world events.”
Sky News has been told the PM was referring to the fact that the nation’s defence and foreign policies are constantly under review by the National Security Council, and the SDSR was similarly reviewed.
It comes as the Vice Chief of the Defence Staff prepared to give evidence to the MPs’ defence committee on the SDSR.
Source : SKY News