Under significant pressure from their own Members of Parliament, the duo faced calls to raise defense spending to a minimum of 2.5 percent of GDP during a passionate debate in the Commons.
They were cautioned by MPs that failure to increase investment could lead to Britain or its allies facing “a very high price” at the hands of an increasingly confident Vladimir Putin. Former Armed Forces minister Mark Francois emphasized that Britain would lack the capability to sustain a prolonged conflict with Putin’s Russia for more than a few months before depleting ammunition and combat resources, branding this situation as “completely unacceptable” for a Conservative Government.
‘If you happen to believe, as I do, that the role of our Armed Forces is to save lives by convincing any potential aggressor that were they to attack us we would defeat them, then we are failing,’ he said.
‘This is ultimately about whether our grandchildren are going to grow up in someone else’s re-education camp. The skies are darkening; brutal dictators with powerful weapons at their disposal are on the rise. The democracies are on the back foot rather than the front. History tells us again and again that the appeasement of dictators – be they called Adolf Hitler or Vladimir Putin – does not work.
‘We should be increasing the defence budget to at least 3 per cent of GDP.’ Britain is spending about 2.3 per cent of GDP on defence but the Government is now under mounting pressure after Mr Hunt failed to find extra money in this month’s Spring Budget.
Danny Kruger, co-chairman of the influential New Conservatives group, said ‘we need to be spending at least 3 per cent’.
Sir Alec Shelbrooke added: ‘We are going to have to spend more money, but we also need to spend it more efficiently.’
Yesterday’s discussion revolved around two reports critiquing military funding, one of which was from the Commons defense committee. This report concluded that the Armed Forces are ill-prepared for a ‘high-intensity’ conflict due to longstanding personnel and equipment shortages that need urgent attention following years of ‘hollowing out’.
Sir Jeremy Quin, the committee chair, informed MPs that Britain allocated 5 percent of GDP to defense at the time of the Berlin Wall’s collapse in 1989. He emphasized the necessity of making sacrifices to adequately prepare for peer-to-peer warfare, warning of dire consequences if investment fails to materialize.
Concluding the debate, Defense Minister James Cartlidge outlined that increasing spending to 3 percent would necessitate an additional £20 billion, or £6.5 billion to reach 2.5 percent. The Daily Mail is advocating for an immediate increase in defense spending through its Don’t Leave Britain Defenceless campaign.
