Boris Johnson set to announce increase in defence spending
Boris Johnson is set to announce an increase in UK defence spending today as a response to the growing threat from Russia.
The Prime Minister is expected to announce billions of pounds extra for military equipment today, on the last day of the 2022 G7 summit, after calls from defence secretary Ben Wallace to boost the UK’s defence capabilities.
The Times reports that the increase will happen by the middle of this decade.
When asked about the speculation today, Johnson said that “we have more than met our pledge to exceed the 2 per cent floor” and that “we have to respond to the way the threats continue to change”.
It comes after Talk TV reported yesterday that Wallace had sent a letter to Johnson to call for the defence budget to be lifted to 2.5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2028.
The UK is one of just nine Nato countries that spends two per cent of GDP on defence, which is a formal target for the 30-country alliance.
Foreign secretary Liz Truss has also called for increased defence spending since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
She told a Westminster committee today that “we treat that [two per cent target] as a floor, not a ceiling”.
The Prime Minister yesterday reiterated his support for Ukraine and said that the “price for freedom is worth paying”.
“And just remember, it took the democracies in the middle of the last century a long time to recognise that they had to resist tyranny and aggression,” he said.
“It took them a long time, it was very expensive, but what it bought in the end, with the defeat of the of the dictators, particularly of Nazi Germany, it bought decades and decades of stability [and] a world order that relied on a rules-based international system.
“And that is worth protecting, that is worth defending, that delivers long term prosperity.”