The UK chief of defence staff Sir Tony Radakin has said the government should provide more money for defence. Speaking to BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, he said his call would not be a “surprise” and that the person in his job would “always want more more for defence”.Appearing on the same programme, Treasury minister Darren Jones said the government wanted to increase defence spending from 2.3% to 2.5% of the national income.However, he did not say when the target would be reached or whether it would be met before the next election, which could be held in 2029, at the latest. Jones said the government would not commit to a deadline until it had completed its strategic defence review.The review – led by former Labour minister and Nato head George Robertson – is examining the current state of the armed forces, the threats the UK faces and the capabilities needed to address them. It is due to be completed in the spring.Jones warned that increasing defence spending would mean “trade offs” with other areas of public spending.A Whitehall source told the BBC it is a question of “when, not if” the government reaches the 2.5% target. They also said the election of Donald Trump as the next US president had “focused minds” on the need to increase military spending.Trump has repeatedly urged European countries to increase defence spending and said he would let aggressors such as Russia do “whatever the hell it wants” to those that …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnThe UK chief of defence staff Sir Tony Radakin has said the government should provide more money for defence. Speaking to BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, he said his call would not be a “surprise” and that the person in his job would “always want more more for defence”.Appearing on the same programme, Treasury minister Darren Jones said the government wanted to increase defence spending from 2.3% to 2.5% of the national income.However, he did not say when the target would be reached or whether it would be met before the next election, which could be held in 2029, at the latest. Jones said the government would not commit to a deadline until it had completed its strategic defence review.The review – led by former Labour minister and Nato head George Robertson – is examining the current state of the armed forces, the threats the UK faces and the capabilities needed to address them. It is due to be completed in the spring.Jones warned that increasing defence spending would mean “trade offs” with other areas of public spending.A Whitehall source told the BBC it is a question of “when, not if” the government reaches the 2.5% target. They also said the election of Donald Trump as the next US president had “focused minds” on the need to increase military spending.Trump has repeatedly urged European countries to increase defence spending and said he would let aggressors such as Russia do “whatever the hell it wants” to those that …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
