More needs to be spent on defence, admits Hunt

Jeremy Hunt said Europe must take greater responsibility for its own security amid the threat from Russia and Iran – Christopher Goodney/Bloomberg

Jeremy Hunt has said Britain will have to spend more on defence as he faces growing calls from Tory MPs to boost the military budget.

The Chancellor said the UK and its European allies must take greater responsibility for their own security amid the heightened threat from Russia and Iran.

During a trip to the United States on Wednesday, he added that Donald Trump had been right to demand that Europe increased its defence spending.

Mr Hunt, who has said he will increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP once it is affordable to do so, admitted the military would need more money.

“It’s very important that European countries recognise that, when it comes to America’s role in the world, we are actors, not observers,” he said in remarks reported by Politico.

“In the end, we have to be prepared to spend more on defence. That is a reasonable request from the United States that Europe contributes more to its own defence.”

He said Mr Trump, the former US president who is running for a second term in office, was right to have “made that case very loudly”, but added that the argument that Europe must shoulder a greater burden has “been made by every American president while I’ve been in public life”.

It comes after Mr Hunt said last month that the UK needed to return to economic growth in order to spend more on its military.

The Chancellor was challenged over the fact he was able to find cash for tax cuts in last month’s Spring Budget, but no new money for defence, enraging Tory MPs.

He told the BBC: “If we’re going to spend more money on defence, as I believe we will need to do in the future, what we need to have is a healthily growing economy.”

Mr Hunt is under pressure from Tory MPs, including several fellow Cabinet members, to speed up a cash injection into the military, with some senior Conservatives calling for an Iron Dome to defend Britain from missile attacks.

Grant Shapps, the Defence Secretary who has been tipped for a future tilt at the Tory leadership, has been among those publicly calling for a boost.

He has said that the military budget should ultimately rise to three per cent of GDP, a figure also advocated by Liz Truss, the former prime minister. Penny Mordaunt, another potential contender, has also made it clear that she wants to see more funding ploughed into the Navy in particular.

Downing Street has said the UK is the largest defence spender in Europe and the second largest in Nato, behind only the US.

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