‘Broken pledge’ on defence spending target

Analysis finds government failing to spend 2pc of GDP on military, but MoD insists figures are wrong

A DEFENCE spending row broke out last night after a respected think tank said the Government was breaking its promise to spend 2 per cent of GDP on the military budget.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said Britain’s defence spending had dipped below the Nato benchmark figure, despite the Government insisting it would meet the target.

Theresa May had recently boasted to US President Donald Trump of Britain’s military spending and lectured European allies to spend more.

The IISS analysis is likely to bring further claims that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) used creative accountancy to say it was hitting the target.

One Conservative MP said the analysis showed how far defence spending had fallen – Britain spent up to five per cent of GDP on defence in the 1980s – and how the tight military budgets contrasted with Britain’s generous international aid spending. Labour said the figures showed a “shocking failure” by the Government.

An MoD spokesman said yesterday: “These figures are wrong: Nato’s own figures clearly show that the UK spends over 2 per cent of its GDP on defence.”

The UK’s defence budget this year is £35 billion, a real-term rise on 2016.

IISS said it stood by the estimate from its annual Military Balance report, which showed Britain spent 1.98 per cent of GDP during 2016.

John Chipman, director general of IISS, said: “In 2016, only two European Nato states – Greece and Estonia – met the aim to spend 2 per cent of their GDP on defence, down from four European states that met this measure in 2015. The UK dipped slightly below this at 1.98 per cent, as its economy grew faster in 2016 than its defence spending.”

Julian Lewis MP, chairman of the Commons defence select committee, said that while the Forces were struggling to get the MoD to pay for equipment, the international development department “has ‘X’ amount of money and have to think of ways to spend it”.

Nia Griffith, shadow defence secretary, said: “The MoD was already barely scraping over the 2 per cent mark and had changed its accounting methods to give the illusion of keeping the commitment.”