Britain and Europe must spend more to boost Nato says Hillary

BRITAIN will have to pay more to remain in Nato if Hillary Clinton becomes the US President.

Mrs Clinton, the leading presidential candidate for the Democratic Party, said it was ‘important’ the UK and other allies contributed a larger share towards the military alliance’s costs.

Her comments will cause alarm among military commanders in Britain, where defence spending has been slashed in recent years.

Speaking during a Democratic candidates debate in New York on Thursday night, she said: ‘I support our continuing involvement in Nato. It’s important to ask our Nato allies to pay more of the cost. There’s a requirement that they should be doing so and I believe that needs to be enforced.’

Mrs Clinton stated that Nato has been ‘the most successful military alliance in human history’ but said ‘we need to modernise it and move it into the 21st century.’

‘We need to modernise it’

She added: ‘Of course they should be paying more but that doesn’t mean if they don’t we leave.’

Nato members are supposed to spend 2 per cent of national income on defence – something Britain only achieved last year because of accountancy tricks, a defence think-tank has warned.

America spent £ 22billion on defence in 2015, ten times as much as Britain’s £ 2billion. But Germany only spent £28biillion despite having a larger economy than the UK, Nato figures show.

Mrs Clinton’s views on Nato funding were echoed by Bernie Sanders, her rival in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. The Vermont senator said: ‘The UK has a good National Health Service and they also provide fairly reasonable higher education. I do believe that the countries of Europe should pick up more of the burden for their defence.’

The debate between Mr Sanders and Mrs Clinton came ahead of five crucial primary elections taking place on Tuesday.