Britain should spend more on defence

Britain must spend more on defence. As I say in the Times today the defence budget is already being increased but it is hard to argue that it is sufficient given how changed the security landscape now looks with Putin’s Russia launching an all-out invasion of a sovereign, European state.

Until this week, the UK could argue that it would only increase defence spending still further when other European members of Nato had pulled their weight and were hitting the 2 per cent of GDP target. But now Olaf Scholz has announced that Germany will be spending 2 per cent – or more – by 2024, which poses another dilemma for London: does it want to remain the second biggest defence spender in Nato after the US? This status is important to the UK’s standing in both Washington and in Europe. This country would need to commit an extra 0.4 per cent more of GDP, £8.8