The prime minister wrapped up the Nato summit in Madrid with a pledge that could see more than £55bn added to military budgets this decade, following Ben Wallace's pleas for more money.
However, senior Conservatives said the PM's ambition remained "feeble" and the target too far off, given the gravity of the immediate threat from Vladimir Putin's Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. Defence committee chair Tobias Ellwood, who has asked for 3 per cent of GDP to be spent on defence, said Mr Johnson's end-of-decade commitment was "too little too late", pointing to current budget cuts set to see 10,000 troops slashed from the army.
Julian Lewis, chair of the intelligence and security committee, noted that the UK spent between 4.1 per cent and 5.5 per cent of GDP on defence during the 1980s, the last decade of the Cold War. "Announcing at the height of a deadly confrontation in Europe in 2022 that we aim to achieve just a feeble 2.5 per cent in eight years' time, shows an inability or unwillingness to face up to the gravity of the current crisis," said Mr Lewis.
This story is from the July 01, 2022 edition of The Independent.
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This story is from the July 01, 2022 edition of The Independent.
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