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Good morning. Boris Johnson is at the Nato summit in Madrid today, and Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, has been doing the morning interview round. The Daily Telegraph splashes today on a story saying Boris Johnson faces a cabinet split over defence spending. It says:
The Telegraph can reveal that Downing Street intervened to water down calls for higher defence expenditure from Ben Wallace in a speech delivered on Tuesday.
Mr Wallace, the Defence Secretary, was due to argue that spending just two per cent of GDP on defence was outdated. However, the line was removed at Number 10’s request.
Downing Street was said to have been left “furious” by what was seen as an attempt to bounce Mr Johnson into announcing a major defence spending increase while at the Nato summit this week.
This morning Wallace claimed the story was based on a misunderstanding. Some words were taken out of the speech, he admitted. But that was not because the PM disagreed with them, but because the PM wanted to say them himself, Wallace said. He told Times Radio:
There were some words in my speech that were taken out because the prime minister is going to say them today.
I think the centre just wanted to make sure that he said it before the defence secretary said it. It is perfectly legitimate. It was his words. There is nothing conspiracy in it, I’m afraid.
Wallace also restated his call for defence spending to rise. He told Sky News:
In the here and now we are rightly set. The question is what happens in the middle of the decade.
My settlement was done before Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia is very, very dangerous on the world stage. The world is less secure than it was two, three years ago and is not looking likely to change for the rest of the decade.
That is the moment, in the middle of the decade, to say we should commit to increased funding.
While there is broad agreement in cabinet that defence spending should increase, views do seem to be split over quite what the rise should be, and how it should be presented. One issue is defence spending as a share of GDP; another is the Tory manifesto promise to increase defence spending at least 0.5% above inflation. In their overnight story, my colleagues Peter Walker and Dan Sabbagh explain what has been happening.
Related: Boris Johnson seeks to defuse row over abandoning defence spending pledge
Here is the agenda for the day.
9am: Boris Johnson attends the official opening of the Nato summit in Madrid. The summit will continue throughout the day.
9.30am: The Commons privileges committee meets in private to start planning its inquiry into whether Boris Johnson lied to MPs about Partygate. Harriet Harman is expected to be elected as the committee’s chair.
9.45am: Thérèse Coffey, the work and pensions secretary, gives evidence to the Commons work and pensions committee.
10am: Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the international trade secretary, gives evidence to the Commons international trade committee about about the trade deal with Australia.
10.30am: Lisa Nandy, the shadow levelling up secretary, gives a speech to the Local Government Association annual conference.
12pm: Dominic Raab, the deputy PM, faces Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, at PMQs.
12.45pm: Sajid Javid, the health secretary, gives a speech to the Policy Exchange thinktank on digital transformation in healthcare.
2.15pm: George Eustice, the environment secretary, gives evidence to the Commons environmental audit committee.
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