Defence spending in line to rise for 21st century battles
BORIS the first JOHNSON major increase last night in signalled defence spending for five years as he unveiled the biggest reassessment of Britain’s place in the world since the end of the Cold War.
The Prime Minister will today announce an integrated review of funding for the Ministry of Defence, Foreign Office and Department for International Development, which is likely to reprioritise where money is spent.
Mr Johnson said the UK could not “rest on its laurels” and had to develop new technologies to deal with emerging threats in the 21st century, such as cyber attacks.
The news came as it emerged that former soldiers are 54 times more likely than terrorists to be prosecuted over killings in Northern Ireland, according to a legal claim alleging veterans are victims of unfair discrimination.
As a result of the review, defence spending, which has been pegged at 2 per cent of GDP, currently £38billion a year, since 2015, could increase, Downing Street confirmed.
The Government-wide integrated
review will be led by Sir Alex Ellis, the deputy National Security Adviser, with advice from Prof John Bew, Mr Johnson’s foreign affairs special adviser.
The review will look at how the Forces spend money on equipment, an area Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson’s chief adviser, has been critical of. It will also look at how the UK can “better use technology and data to adjust to the changing nature of threats we face – from countering hostile state activity to strengthening our Armed Forces”.
Mr Johnson said last night: “We will be judged by how we respond to the opportunities ahead. As the world changes we must move with it – harnessing new technologies and ways of thinking to ensure British foreign policy is rooted firmly in our national interests, now and in the decades ahead.”
The Conservatives’ 2019 election manifesto committed the UK “to continue to exceed the Nato target of spending 2 per cent of GDP on defence and increase the budget by at least 0.5 per cent above inflation every year of the new Parliament”.
Downing Street sources made clear that – unlike previous reviews in 2010 and 2015 – the new review will not have to be “cost neutral”, which means that overall defence spending can increase.
The source said: “It’s not set up, as previous spending reviews were, with
‘It’s not set up, as previous reviews were, with the specific intention of being cost neutral’
the specific intention of being cost neutral. It is being conducted in line with the comprehensive spending review.”
The source added the need to be cost neutral had meant that “if a new piece of kit was needed in one area, it meant losing something elsewhere”. The comprehensive spending review will set departmental budgets for several years from April next year.
Tobias Ellwood MP, the chairman of the defence select committee, said: “With global threats increasing we now speak frequently of the erosion to our rules-based order. Yet few nations are willing to step forward and defend them. If ‘Global Britain’ is have true meaning it must include the means and desire to help shape it.”
Tory MP Julian Lewis, Mr Ellwood’s predecessor as chairman, said: “By linking the combined review with the next spending round, progress should be possible towards the necessary 3 per cent goal repeatedly recommended by the defence select committee.”
But Alan Mendoza, executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, warned: “Britain’s foreign policy direction risks being dominated by the Treasury rather than a bold revaluation of our place in the world. This same approach led to the failed reviews of previous years.”