Libya campaign could cost Britain 'hundreds of millions'  Chief
secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander puts potential cost
well above chancellor George Osborne's original estimate   • The
Guardian, RAF Typhoon pilot prepares for mission over Libya An
RAF Typhoon pilot prepares for a mission over Libya at the Gioia
del Colle airbase in southern Italy. Photograph: MoD/EPA  The
cost of Britain's military operations in Libya could run "into
the hundreds of millions", Danny Alexander, chief secretary to
the Treasury, said on Sunday.  "The campaign is costing tens of
millions, potentially into the hundreds of millions as it goes
on, but that money is coming from the reserve that we have set
aside, precisely for contingencies such as this," he told Sky
News on Sunday.  When the campaign started, the chancellor
George Osborne said the cost would be "in the order of tens of
millions of pounds, not hundreds of millions".  Since then,
defence economists have warned that the spend could reach £1bn
if the campaign stre