BRITISH GOVERNMENT PLANS TO INCREASE DEFENCE SPENDING BY OVER £1 BILLION: REPORT

Sun 25 December 2022:

The British government’s defense spending is set to be increased by more than £1 billion ($1.21 billion) over the next two years, according to the Telegraph newspaper on Saturday.

According to the report, UK Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt will announce the budget increase in the spring.

According to the newspaper, military experts estimate that the Ministry of Defence’s budget must increase from £48.6 billion to £50.1 billion in 2024-25 to avoid a real-terms cut as the country’s inflation remains above 10%.

Hunt stated in the autumn budget presented last month that the government recognizes the need to increase the defense budget and confirmed that the budget will be maintained at at least 2% of GDP in accordance with NATO.

“We have one of the largest defence budgets in Europe and in 2020 we announced the biggest increase to defence spending since the Cold War,” said a government spokesperson while speaking to Reuters.

The spokesperson further stated that any increase in the defence budget will be considered in the next integrated review’s part, which will also lay out the country’s foreign policy, security and defence priorities in the spring.

The announcement of an increase in defence spending will be seen as Defence Secretary Ben Wallace’s victory, who was pushing hard for this in the past year.

Royal United Services Institute’s deputy director-general Prof Malcolm Chalmers, while speaking to The Telegraph said, “It looks as if the Chancellor in his Spring Budget will provide enough money to maintain the core defence budget in real terms over the next two years. And indeed the Government has already committed to doing that next year.”

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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