{"id":146453,"date":"2018-06-26T01:08:45","date_gmt":"2018-06-26T01:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/defence-spending-rise-needed-to-keep-influence-say-mps\/"},"modified":"2018-06-26T01:08:45","modified_gmt":"2018-06-26T01:08:45","slug":"defence-spending-rise-needed-to-keep-influence-say-mps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/defence-spending-rise-needed-to-keep-influence-say-mps\/","title":{"rendered":"Defence spending rise needed to keep influence, say MPs"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure>                                  <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Female British soldier in Afghanistan\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/EBFA\/production\/_102201406_3c6db36b-5aa1-4730-a20d-f7613609f458.jpg\"\/>Image copyright                  MOD                                                    <\/figure>\n<p class=\"caps\">The UK will have to significantly increase defence spending if it is to maintain influence with Washington and Nato allies, MPs have warned.<\/p>\n<p>A House of Commons Defence Committee report says the defence budget should rise from 2% of GDP to 3% (\u00a360bn).<\/p>\n<p>Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has reportedly demanded an extra \u00a320bn for his department. <\/p>\n<p>A government spokesman said: &quot;We have been clear we will continue to exceed Nato&#039;s 2% spending target.&quot;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Reality Check: What&#039;s happening to defence spending? <\/li>\n<li>UK military credibility &#039;at risk&#039; over cuts<\/li>\n<li>UK &#039;must prepare for Russia fight&#039;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The committee said the extra money for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) could be spent on increasing the readiness of the armed forces and to bolster Britain&#039;s anti-submarine warfare to counter possible threats from Russia.<\/p>\n<p>The report recommends increasing the defence budget to 3% of GDP but says a rise to 2.5% would &quot;comfortably fill the &#039;black hole&#039; in the existing MoD budget&quot;. <\/p>\n<p>It argued that without such investment the UK armed forces&#039; usefulness to the US would be diminished. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;The government must not let this happen,&quot; the report says.<\/p>\n<figure>                                                                                                       Image copyright                  AFP\/ Getty Images<figcaption>Image caption                                      US President Donald Trump has previously criticised other Nato countries for not spending enough on defence                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The MPs&#039; report also notes comments by US Defence Secretary James Mattis that the UK benefits from its defence relationship with the US by \u00a33bn a year. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;This implies that both the UK armed forces and HM Treasury benefit from our close relationship with the US,&quot; the report says.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;However, that will continue to be true only while the UK military retains both the capacity and capability to maintain interoperability with the US military and to relieve US burdens.<\/p>\n<p>At next month&#039;s Nato summit in Brussels, US President Donald Trump is expected to repeat his demands for European allies to spend more on defence.<\/p>\n<h2>&#039;An increasingly acrimonious row&#039;<\/h2>\n<p>BBC defence correspondent Jonathan Beale says the committee&#039;s report will &quot;add fuel to what seems to be an increasingly acrimonious row between the defence secretary, Gavin Williamson, and the Treasury and the prime minister.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>He says there have been warnings of a Conservative backbench rebellion if more funding is not forthcoming.<\/p>\n<figure>                                                                                                       Image copyright                  AFP\/Getty Images\/BBC<figcaption>Image caption                                      Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson reportedly wants more money for the military but Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liz Truss has warned against a tax and spend policy                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Over the weekend it was reported that Mr Williamson threatened to end Theresa May&#039;s leadership if she did not provide more money. <\/p>\n<p>However Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liz Truss has warned cabinet colleagues that it is &quot;not macho&quot; to demand more funding.<\/p>\n<p>Writing in the Telegraph, she argued a tax and spend policy would harm the Conservatives in the opinion polls. <\/p>\n<p>Get news from the BBC in your inbox, each weekday morning<\/p>\n<p>A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: &quot;The UK maintains the biggest defence budget in Europe we have been clear we will continue to exceed Nato&#039;s 2% spending target.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;The defence secretary launched the Modernising Defence Programme to strengthen our armed forces in the face of intensifying threats.&quot;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright MOD The UK will have to significantly increase defence spending if it is to maintain influence with Washington and Nato allies, MPs have warned. A House of Commons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":146454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-146453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}