Wallace denies resignation threat over defence spending pledge

The Defence Secretary said he will be fighting for ‘as much money as I can get’ when he meets Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace (Dominic Lipinski/PA)
PA Wire
Gavin Cordon2 November 2022
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has denied that he has threatened to resign if he failed to secure a commitment from Rishi Sunak to increase defence spending as a share of national income.

Appearing before the Commons Defence Committee, Mr Wallace said he will be “fighting for as much money as I can get” for defence when he meets Chancellor Jeremy Hunt on Thursday ahead of the November 17 autumn statement.

Asked about reports that he had threatened to resign if he did not get a commitment to raise defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2030, Mr Wallace said: “I haven’t said I would resign on 2.5, 3.5, 4%. Obviously the media might like that.”

Pressed by Labour MP Derek Twigg if the Ministry of Defence had briefed journalists that he would quit if he was not satisfied with his settlement, he replied: “I don’t run my department that way.”

Earlier in the hearing, Mr Wallace described the target of raising defence spending to 3% of GDP – compared to the Nato minimum of 2.5% – by the end of the decade as an “aspiration”.

He said that at a time of rising threat levels, it was important the country was prepared to commit greater resources to defence.

I will be fighting for as much money as I can get

Ben Wallace

“Three percent as an aspiration or a planned marker, wherever we get to subject to our budget discussions, is a perfectly reasonable aspiration in the dangerous world that is emerging,” he said.

“I have always said as threat changes so should our commitment and our planning and our funding. Defence is moving back up the priority list back towards Cold War levels of where it should be.”

Mr Wallace said that his aim in his talks with the Chancellor would be to ensure that the defence budget was protected from the effects of inflation and fluctuations in the foreign exchange rate for the next two years.

“I will be fighting for as much money as I can get. I will fight every bit of the way to see what I can get,” he said. “I am keen that we get a budget insulated from the inflationary effects.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in