Former National Security Advisor calls for increased defence spending

Defence spending should be increased, and the overseas aid budget should return to its pre-cut level, former head of the civil service Lord Sedwill has said.

The peer, Cabinet Secretary and National Security Adviser under Boris Johnson, made the call on Sunday as allies reconsider spending levels in response to the Russian threat.

Lord Sedwill suggested national security spending should rise to 4% of GDP to include defence spending increasing up to 2.75% from 2% where it stands now.

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He also called for aid spending to be brought back to 0.7% of gross national income after the Prime Minister slashed it to 0.5% during the coronavirus pandemic.

Watch: MPs urge Boris Johnson to increase defence budget (March 2021).

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has previously indicated she would favour increased defence spending.

But Chancellor Rishi Sunak's spring statement included no more defence spending despite the worsening picture since the integrated review of foreign policy, security and defence a year ago.

Lord Sedwill told Times Radio: "We shouldn't be seeking to reconstitute a model version of the 20th Century force, but I would like to see us investing more in order to be able to accelerate the creation of this genuine 21st Century force that we envisaged as we went into the integrated review, and towards the end of my time in Government.

"Could, for example, we say it'll be 4% on national security, which would be, let's say, 2.5 on defence, or 2.75 on defence, 0.7 on development, with the rest being made up of investment in intelligence and cyber and the diplomatic network?

"I think an envelope of that kind actually would be well worth pursuing. And then that'll give governments the opportunity to flex between the different capabilities."

He argued that the overseas aid budget "is a really important way of dealing with potential risks and conflict outside Europe, from which the next crisis could emerge".

Earlier this month, speaking in Washington, Ms Truss said the West had spent too little on defence for "a number of years" while Russia built up its military capability.

"I'm not going to pre-empt any future discussions between the Chancellor and the Defence Secretary," she said.

"But as well as conventional defence we also need to step up our efforts in areas like information."

Unlike the Russians, the UK abandoned its information unit at the end of the Cold War, she said, adding: "We need to be making sure that on every possible front, whether its conventional defence, whether its technology or whether indeed its information we are able to outcompete our adversaries."