UK 'should consider defence spending boost’, says Hunt

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has claimed that the UK should contemplate ‘decisively’ increasing defence spending after Brexit.

Speaking at the Lord Mayor's Banquet in London, the former Health Secretary said that the threats facing the UK had ‘markedly’ changed since the Cold War, arguing that any extra money should be spent on ‘new capabilities and not simply plugging gaps’.

Although Hunt has sat in successive cabinets since 2010 which have overseen large cuts to defence spending, roughly £9 billion, he warned that is ‘not sustainable’ to continue expecting the US to spend four per cent of its GDP on defence while other Nato allies spent between under two per cent. The UK spends two per cent of its economic output on defence, with all Nato members having agreed to do this by 2024.

There has not been a full-scale Strategic Defence and Security Review, looking at future defence challenges and capabilities since 2015.