Cameron fights back on defence spending

DAVID Cameron has hit back at mounting pressure over spending on UK defence, insisting that Britain is “not shrinking its role in the world” as a result of cutbacks.

A report by the Royal United Services Institute said it was inevitable that Britain’s defence spending would drop below the Nato target in the face of continuing auster it y cuts. It predicted up to 30,000 service personnel could go – with the Army likely to bear the heaviest cuts – leaving the armed forces with a combined strength of just 115,000 by the end of the decade.

But Mr Cameron was defiant, saying: “Anyone who feels that Britain is somehow shrinking its role in the world; that’s not the case.”

He stressed that Britain had met the two per cent target throughout this fiveyear Parliament and was due to do so in the coming years.

“What we have done with the defence budget is we froze it in cash terms at around £36bn; that’s the fifth biggest defence budget in the world and the second biggest in Nato.

“We have made very specific pledges to increase in real terms the equipment budget, which is absolutely vital; that’s the aircraft carriers and the Type 26 frigates and the destroyers and hunter-killer submarines and the rest.”

Asked about prominent figures raising concerns about defence spending, Mr Cameron suggested sometimes they had a book to talk about and other times they were just expressing their views.

He added: “I have responsibility to make sure we make the right decisions about defence and other security spending. I look at these things in the round, so I am also concerned about the budget for MI5, the Secret Intelligence Service, GCHQ, counter-terrorism policing.

“To me all of these things are part of our national defence.”