Probe into alleged UK defence access rule breach Philip Hammond, defence secretary, has ordered an inquiry into claims that former military chiefs breached official rules by lobbying or offering to lobby for arms firms chasing major defence contracts. The Sunday Times secretly recorded the former officers boasting about their contacts with ministers and former colleagues, under the headline "generals for hire." Mr Hammond insisted that "former military officers have no influence over what MoD contracts are awarded" but said he was considering tightening up rules covering relations between retired officers and current military staff. "We have to look at the level of access we give retired officers to the Ministry of Defence and senior officers," he told the BBC's Andrew Marr programme. If they are abusing that access for commercial purposes we will have to tighten that up or shut it down. He said all equipment was ordered "in the interests of the armed forces, not retired personnel." Nevertheless the affair has reopened questions about the "revolving door" between officials leaving office and going on to work for commercial interests in a lobbying role. The Sunday Times alleged that Lt Gen Sir John Kiszely, former head of the Defence Academy, claimed he could use his role as president of the Royal British Legion to push his clients" agenda with the prime minister and other senior figures at Remembrance Day events. It claimed Lt Gen Richard Applegate, former MoD procurement chief, described a lobbying campaign in parliament on behalf of an Israeli arms company; he was barred from lobbying at the time because he had only recently retired. The paper says that Admiral Sir Trevor Soar, commander of the fleet until last March, boasted he could "ignore" his two-year "purdah" from lobbying, while Lord Dannatt, former head of the army, talked of sidestepping a ban on discussing a £400m contract by "targeting" the MoD's top civil servant. All four have denied doing anything wrong and said they always had the best interests of the services at heart. Mr Hammond said that in newspaper "sting" operations, those caught often had a tendency to "big up" their role and influence.