27 March 2025, 23:40 | Updated: 28 March 2025, 00:28

By Professor Michael Ben-Gad

Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ 2.5% rise in defence spending by 2027 is nowhere near the emergency spending needed to deter an imminent war.

Spending on defence in the UK has been below 3% since 1995, and the effect of years of underspending are cumulative. To put this into perspective, in 1939 the US was spending only 1.8% of its GDP on defence, which rose to 42.7% by 1943. That is what wartime spending would be like.

Instead of acknowledging that her decisions require trade-offs, Chancellor Reeves presented increased defence spending as a cost-free opportunity to create more jobs in neglected areas.

The justification for building new........

© LBC