Rachel Reeves? We know why she is short of money. The government and the media don’t like to talk about it so the general public is probably not aware.
Britain has made huge increases in spending on arms with more increases ongoing. Let’s not pretend we need this!
Britain is almost top of the table for big military spending in the world. It’s fifth in the world after the US, China, India and Russia. We spend more on armaments than Germany or France. [Source Stockholm International Peace Research Institute report 2022, therefore 2021 figures.]
We spend more of our GDP on defence that any other country in NATO except the US.
Present Day UK Defence Spending
● 2019 Conservative Manifesto commitment to increase defence spending every year by ½ percent ABOVE INFLATION.
● 19 November 2020: Government announced £16.5 billion increase in defence spending ABOVE MANIFESTO COMMITMENT – the biggest increase in defence spending for thirty years.
● Total increase in arms spending £24.1 billion over four years compared to 2019
● Further huge increase in defence spending promised in next 7 years.
Liz Truss planned to spend 3% of GDP on defence by 2030. To do this the government would need to increase defence spending by about 60% in real terms. This is equivalent to about £157 billion in additional spending. I believe this target is still in place.
Conclusion
We need to scrap the proposed increases in defence spending and spend more of our existing defence budget more appropriately on the people of Britain.
