MILITARY spending may need to rise for TWENTY YEARS as the UK faces a more dangerous world, the Defence Secretary said today.
Cabinet Minister Ben Wallace revealed a “growing proportion” of cash will be needed in an effort to keep the nation safe.
Ben Wallace, Secretary of State for Defence, arrives for a cabinet meeting at Downing Street in London
He is currently locked in talks with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to agree a settlement for short-term inflationary pressures ahead of the Budget in mid-March – but pointed to the long-term concerns.
Mr Wallace said: “There’s a recognition that as the world gets more dangerous, unstable, defence should continue to get a growing proportion of spend, we can then debate how much that proportion should be.
“But my point is the direction of travel is: the world is more dangerous and unstable, and likely to remain so for a decade or two.”
His warning comes after he condemned the “hollowed out” military in recent decades under governments of all parties.
Mr Wallace along with Foreign Secretary James Cleverly was speaking in Portsmouth following the conclusion of a two-day summit with counterparts from Australia.
He also said Russia is resorting to the brutality of the “First World War” in the Ukraine war.
He highlighted their tactics dating back close to 100 years as Moscow counts close to 200,000 casualties since the invasion.
His comments came as he responded to urgent calls from ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson to send fighter jets to the country in an effort to stop Russian aggression.
He added: “I’m very open to examining all sorts of systems, not just jets – but these things don’t always happen overnight.
“But I can say we’re not putting Ukrainians at risk.
“Even if tomorrow morning we announced we were going to put them in fast jets, that would take months – you’re suddenly having to learn to pilot a fast jet, so there is no magic wand in this horrendous conflict.”
He added: “Right now what the Ukrainians need is the ability to form military formations on the ground in order to use combined armoured manoeuvre to push back Russian forces.
“That is how you defeat the human wave attacks the Russians are currently having to resort to – and they are resorting to First World War level type of attacks, with subsequent casualties to match.”
Ukrainians will also begin training from Monday as they learn to use our Challenger 2 tanks in the war effort.
Both Rishi Sunak and Mr Wallace want to send a squadron of tanks to the country as soon as possible and could reach eastern Europe by the end of March.
