Shapps and Zahawi vow to give Armed Forces more money to counter Russia

CONSERVATIVE leadership rivals Grant Shapps and Nadhim Zahawi have pledged to increase defence spending as they launched their bids to become the next prime minister.

Mr Shapps, the Transport Secretary, said he would raise military expenditure to three per cent of GDP, with the money going towards new fighter squadrons and battleships.

He said increased investment would “deter aggressors” as he warned Britain must prepare for “a long period of highintensity warfare” in response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Mr Zahawi, the new Chancellor, also said that “defence spending needs to rise” in response to the growing threat from Russia, but did not specify the size of any increase.

Both men entered the leadership race last night, with promises to put the Armed Forces front and centre if they

‘We must … commit to raise UK defence spending to three per cent of GDP for the foreseeable future’

are elevated to No10. “We must … commit to raise UK defence spending to three per cent of GDP for the foreseeable future,” Mr Shapps writes in The Sunday Telegraph today.

“Our Armed Forces are superb – professional, courageous, simply the best.

But personnel are too few, and cuttingedge equipment too scarce.

“We have too few fighter squadrons, warships and land systems to sustain a long period of high-intensity warfare. And we must prepare for this.”

He added: “Powerful Armed Forces underline Britain’s indispensability to our European friends. We are Europe’s good cop – the country Putin fears most in his neighbourhood. We should be proud of that. It’s what we as a nation do – we step forward to confront the bully, the gangster. Our temperament admits nothing less.”

Increased defence spending is also a tenet of Mr Zahawi’s campaign, with the Chancellor’s opening pitch citing it as one of his top three priorities.

“Defence spending needs to rise in response to the barbarism of Putin’s war in Ukraine. I will always put the defence of the nation first,” he said.

“Having been born in Iraq and fled the dangers of Saddam, I know that security, safety and freedom are things that we can never take for granted.”

Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary, another leadership contender, told The Telegraph that he would commit at least three per cent of GDP to defence.

The Government says spending on the Armed Forces is set to reach 2.3 per cent of national wealth by the end of this year. Speaking at last month’s Nato

summit in Madrid, Boris Johnson pledged to increase that further to 2.5 per cent by 2030.

Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary – who announced he would not be competing for the leadership yesterday – has been amongst those calling for a significant spending boost in light of the renewed threat from Russia.

Britain is the second biggest military donor to Ukraine after the US and has contributed £2billion worth of arms to Kyiv’s defence of its homeland.

But there have been concerns that, without a significant cash injection, it could take years to replace the weapons that have been donated.

There has also been a growing clamour for the Government to reverse planned cuts to the Army that would reduce troop numbers to just 70,000.

General Lord Dannatt, its former head, has said the move to shed 10,000 more soldiers is “madness” and will leave the UK “woefully short”.

Mr Zahawi’s leadership bid announcement came at the end of a week in which he played a central role persuading Mr Johnson to quit.

He has received the backing of Brandon Lewis and Michelle Donelan, both former Cabinet ministers.

In his pitch, he distanced himself from Mr Johnson with a pledge to take Britain back to low tax Thatcherism if he wins the race for No10.

“Overseeing the highest tax burden since 1949 is not the Conservative way. We cannot tax our way into prosperity,” he said. “The burden of tax is simply too high. Taxes for individuals, families and business need to be lower, and will be on my watch.”

Mr Shapps also pledged to cut the tax burden and said he wants Britain to overtake Germany and become the biggest economy in Europe by 2050.

The Transport Secretary said there needs to be “fresh direction to tackle the cost of living crisis” centred on putting money back in people’s pockets.

“This must mean the measured but relentless advance towards lower taxes, starting first with those on lower incomes facing crippling bills for energy and food,” he said.

“Inflation must be beaten and that means tax cuts must be phased in, combined with tight restraints on public spending which, post-Covid, is still way too high.”

He suggested he would scrap the planned rise in corporation tax to 25 per cent next year saying Britain must have “the most attractive [rate] of all major democratic economies”.

Mr Shapps, who voted for Remain in 2016, also positioned himself as a candidate who would seize the opportunities of Brexit by slashing EU red tape.

“We must make a low-tax, low-regulation economy our firm destination, not a hackneyed aspiration,” he said.