The Prime Minister recently announced the biggest strengthening of our national defence in a generation, with a fully funded plan to grow the defence budget to 2.5% of GDP by 2030.
With the war in Ukraine and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East - the world is increasingly becoming more and more dangerous. An axis of authoritarian states such as Russia, Iran, North Korea and China are increasingly working together to try and reshape the world order. The investment will focus on key high-tech capabilities, including air defence missiles and anti-armour munitions, in addition to continued investment in artillery ammunition.
This will support new high-quality jobs and economic growth across all of the UK – and I know that Dorset will be part of that. The Defence Procurement Minister has confirmed that Lulworth are doing night trials as part of this work – so if you hear night-time rumblings, you can be sure that our armed forces locally are at the cutting edge of our technological innovation.
Many constituents have raised the issue of defence spending with me on the doorstep, and through correspondence.
I have been feeding these views back and the Prime Minister has announced that defence spending will go up 𝐢𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 and will reach 𝟐.𝟓% of GDP by the end of the decade. This is only possible because we are sticking to our plan for the economy. I believe that now is the time to spend more money on defence. It is vital that we continue to back our heroic armed forces and give them the tools they need to get on with the job of keeping us all safe at home.
This will confirm our place as the biggest defence power in Europe and second only to the US in NATO. Our extra £75 billion investment over the next six years will help to provide safety and security for the British people.
Please do share your views with me on our raising of defence spending by completing the survey below.
