Grant Shapps is insisting Defence spending be raised to 2.5 percent of GDP as international threats escalate.
The request was formally made in a letter from the Defence Secretary to the Chancellor, the Telegraph reported. He warned in the letter on January 24 that the UK needed to “re-establish our leadership in Europe”.
The increase would cost around £9billion, a security think tank estimated, and represents an increase of 0.3 percent on the current 2.2 percent of GDP earmarked for defence. In the letter, Mr Shapps called for “bold action” and said the increased spending would “re-establish our leadership in Europe.”
It said: “I recognise this may mean hard choices elsewhere, but we should seek to reap the benefits of your successful management of inflation and the economy.”
With Mr Shapps later adding: “The threats we are facing are growing and so defence spending is only going to go one way. We should seize the initiative for your Budget.”
The letter suggests the Defence Secretary believes Britain’s current military may not be sufficient to tackle threats. Mr Shapps said: “I have personally talked about 3% before I was defence secretary and I think, ultimately, countries will need to spend more.
“As you would expect, I’m a secretary of state who lobbies hard for the area that I represent and I happen to think that, in this case, the defence of our nation is our number one priority.
“The first thing a government has to do is make sure it secures its borders and is able to defend itself. I am pretty full throttle in my insistence that that is what we do.”
As well as being lobbied by his colleagues for additional spending, Mr Hunt is under pressure to deliver tax cuts. The Spring Budget is likely to be the last fiscal statement from the Conservative Government before the next general election, which is widely expected in the autumn.
Treasury sources this week said Mr Hunt is considering a further squeeze on public spending as a way to deliver the tax cuts being demanded by some Tory MPs.
Mr Hunt faced a backlash when it was earlier reported that he would not be increasing defence spending in his budget.
Former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said: “We are already tumbling down the tables on defence spending and aid to Ukraine. Reversing 30 years of hollowing-out can’t be done in four years. We need a sustainable and committed Budget uplift for defence or we will not be ‘match-fit’ for the conflicts to come.”
Former Army commander Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon said: “This is absolute lunacy. Tragically, no political party in this country sees defence spending as a vote winner; alas, Vladimir Putin does.”
A Treasury spokesman said: “We have provided the Ministry of Defence the largest sustained spending increase since the end of the Cold War, with a £24 billion uplift in cash terms over the spending review 2020 period.
“At the spring Budget last year we also provided an extra £11 billion over the next five years.
“Our aspiration over the longer term is to invest 2.5% of GDP on defence as soon as the fiscal and economic circumstances allow.”
