PM pressured to boost defence spending after two ministers call for greater pace of investment

The Prime Minister is under pressure to boost expenditure on defence after two serving ministers publicly called for investment to be made at a "much greater pace".

Senior Conservative MPs, Foreign Office Minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan and Security Minister Tom Tugendhat said Britain needs to "lead the way" by increasing defence and security spending to at least 2.5% of gross domestic product (GDP), a measure of the size of the economy.

It comes after the budget was criticised for failing to boost defence spending.

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While the Government has an aspiration to reach 2.5%, beyond the Nato-wide target of 2%, the ministers said the global risk posed by countries including Russia and China meant there was no time for delay.

"The sad truth is that the world is no longer benign," they said. "Protecting ourselves requires investment.

"And effective investment means that our industrial complex must grow and strengthen at much greater pace than at present.

"We cannot turn on the complex platforms and weapons which ensure military advantage overnight. We must start that growth now, invest at pace to support our allies and stay ahead of our adversaries."

In the budget, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said "our spending will rise to 2.5% as soon as economic conditions allow" but there was no detail of how that would happen.

The article by Ms Trevelyan and Mr Tugendhat was not required to be cleared by No 10 because it is a social media post, and it is also in line with Government policy on increasing spending to 2.5%.

However, it indicates unease within the Tory ranks about the state of the defence budget.

On Friday, a new report concluded the Ministry of Defence (MOD) has no credible plan to fund the military capabilities the Government wants and leaves the UK vulnerable to reliance on protection from allies.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) says it risks such support not always being available and has called on the MOD to get a better control of defence procurement.

In a report on the MOD's Equipment Plan published on Friday, the PAC also stressed the credibility of Britain's Armed Forces had been "undermined" and it leaves the nation in an "alarming place".

Ms Trevelyan, the Indo-Pacific minister, and Mr Tugendhat were both concerned about the level of defence spending needed to respond to China's increasingly assertive global role.

"China announced this week that it was increasing its defence spending by another 7.2% this year, taking it to $230bn. That’s more than twice what it was a decade ago.

"Russia is committed to spending 40% of its expenditure on defence and security this year. Vast sums by any standard to fight its illegal war in Ukraine," they said.

"By contrast, the US defence budget is $842bn this year, up less than 50% over the same period. And the UK's defence budget has risen from £43bn to £55 billion – an increase of only 28%."

They added: "It's clear to us that the UK needs to lead the way in increasing our own domestic defence and security spending commitments to 2.5% and beyond.

"Former defence secretary Ben Wallace and prime minister Boris Johnson made inroads into growing our defence budgets, which had been shrinking in real terms for years, but that only filled the hole. Now we need growth."

Downing Street has defended the Government's record.

In response to the Public Accounts Committee report, a No 10 spokeswoman said: "The Prime Minister has overseen the largest sustained defence spending increase since the end of the Cold War and a £24bn uplift in cash terms over the spending review period.

"We are ensuring that we have the largest defence budget in history, increasing spend and ensuring that we have the funding that we need to protect UK national interests."