Britain must double defence spending to retain global influence, says Hunt

UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the country must be prepared to double its defence and security spending if it wants to be a leading global power in the years ahead.

Mr Hunt, who is openly jockeying to succeed Theresa May as prime minister, said the UK’s military spending could rise to match the levels of national income committed by the US in a speech at the annual diplomatic address to the City of London this week.

Mr Hunt said the US could not be expected to continue to spend 4 per cent of its GDP on defence while its Nato allies spent less than 2 per cent.

“The UK already spends 2 per cent of its economic output on defence but many European countries do not, although all Nato members have agreed to do this by 2024,” he said in a speech on Monday.

“So for these and other reasons I believe it is time for the next strategic defence and security review to ask whether, over the coming decade, we should decisively increase the proportion of GDP we devote to defence.

“We simply do not know what the balance of power in the world will be in 25 years’ time.”

The comments have been interpreted in the UK as Mr Hunt positioning himself as a candidate to succeed Mrs May, who has announced she would resign after the current push to leave the EU.

The UK Cabinet agreed at a meeting yesterday that it was imperative to have resolution of the leadership issue before the summer parliamentary recess starts in July.

Mr Hunt has also said the UK’s rivalry with Russia and China should be much higher on the political agenda.

“Like no time since the Cold War, these authoritarian regimes are using a plethora of tools and instruments to get in between the seams of ‘peace’ and ‘war’ to further their political and economic agendas and revise the rules-based international order,” said James Rogers, a founding member of the think tank Henry Jackson Society.

Downing Street was forced to defend the current budget after Mr Hunt’s remarks.

“UK defence spending is the largest in Europe,” a spokesman said.

“At the next defence and security review we will consider the spending level required to continue to meet the threats to our national security.”