Ben Everitt, the MP for Milton Keynes North, has welcomed the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's commitment to increasing defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030.
Since being elected the local MP has engaged in a number of Parliamentary schemes to gain a better understanding of the British armed forces and global relationships.
With today’s announcement, UK defence spending will increase immediately and then rise steadily to reach £87 billion at the end the decade – hitting 2.5% of GDP by 2030.
The Prime Minister has set out three areas of focus for our bolstered defence budget:
- Firing up the UK defence industrial base: Investing at least an additional £10 billion over the next decade on munitions production, delivering high-quality jobs and investment across the UK and ensuring we have rapid production capacity and stockpiles of next-generation munitions.
- Modernising our Armed Forces: Radically reforming defence procurement and creating a new Defence Innovation Agency to ensure the UK is at the cutting edge of modern warfare technology, with at least 5% of the defence budget to be committed to R&D.
- Backing Ukraine’s defence: Ukraine’s security is our security. As part of this plan, the Government will commit an additional £500 million this year for the ammunition, air defence and drones Ukraine needs; the largest-ever single delivery of military equipment to Ukraine’s frontlines; and a cast-iron commitment to maintain existing levels of support to Ukraine for as long as it is needed.
Ben Everitt MP said: "In the time I've spent with the army and navy, I've seen first-hand how important it is that we not only commit to our current defence spending, but bolster it.
"So this is an extremely welcome announcement today that defence spending will increase to 2.5% of GDP by 2030 - the largest uplift since the Cold War.
"That means since 2010 we will have doubled the amount we spend on defence.
"With instability around the global the importance of supporting our armed forces cannot be understated and we are indebted to those who put their lives on the line for our country."