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The Treasury has changed its rules for funding urgent supplies for troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan from its reserve fund, forcing the Ministry of Defence to meet more of the costs itself...

An MoD spokesman said: "We have agreed that where the costs of UORs exceed a jointly agreed estimate, MoD will repay 50 per cent of the excess costs two years later."

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But after speaking to friends and admirers of Lord Drayson (a self-made pharmaceutical millionaire), the account I have received has little or nothing to do with motor-racing.

It is a much more darker story, which raises disturbing questions about Gordon Brown's Government.

In fact, I am told, Lord Drayson was a conscientious and hard-working minister. He was driven near despair, however, by the fact that he could never rely on the support of the Defence Secretary, Des Browne.

Drayson was also dismayed by the constant erosion, scarcely resisted by Des Browne, of our national defence budget.

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The dire state of the defence budget was the key reason behind last week’s sudden resignation of Lord Drayson, minister for defence equipment and support, according to well placed sources.

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