Do we now know what the Tory strategy for defence is?

For a while the Tories had hoped they could get away with dodging questions on defence spending until after the election. Even as the pressure within their own party for a commitment to the 2 per cent of GDP set by Nato, ministers were either saying they didn’t want to ‘pre-judge’ the Strategic Defence and Security Review, or trying to turn the question round and ask whether Labour was going to match the current level of spending by this government. Neither was a satisfactory answer, but ministers rather have the impression that with just weeks until Parliament dissolves, they needn’t worry too much. Of course, they reckoned without someone picking up on the conversations that are taking place in private, and the Sun has done that today, with an exclusive that George Osborne has told Cameron that spending will fall below the target. Tory MPs including Defence Select Committee chairman Rory Stewart are rightly uncomfortable with this, with Stewart saying this morning that this was about the UK’s credibility.