Liz Truss is ‘deadly serious’ about investing more in defence, says Ben Wallace

Ben Wallace said the PM would not backtrack from her commitment to raise defence spending (AP)

Ben Wallace said on Wednesday that Liz Truss is “deadly serious” about investing more in defence and has written to him confirming her commitment to spend three per cent of GDP on the military by 2030.

The Prime Minister and Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng are under pressure to cut public spending to help pay for a £43 billion programme of tax cuts and restore the confidence of financial markets.

But the Defence Secretary told the Standard he was confident Ms Truss, inset, would not backtrack from her commitment to raise defence spending, insisting the budget needs to rise to meet “the changes in the threat that we’ve seen in the last three or four years”.

Asked what his message was to Ms Truss as she weighs swingeing cuts to Whitehall departments, Mr Wallace said: “I don’t need to send her a message because she sent me a letter confirming the position about five days ago… She’s deadly serious about this. This is a pledge from her, not just to me but to the country.”

The Institute for Fiscal Studies think-tank estimated this week that the Chancellor’s plan to cut taxes and spend £60 billion over the next six months on capping energy bills could require a “fiscal tightening” of more than £60 billion just to stabilise debt as a fraction of national income in 2026–27.

Ms Truss has pledged to better Boris Johnson’s commitment to spend 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence by the end of the decade by agreeing to raise defence spending to that level by 2026 and three per cent four years later.

Mr Wallace has previously said that could mean the annual defence budget rising from £48 billion now to £100 billion in 2029-30.

But he added that was essential as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the growing threat from China meant the world is becoming less secure.

“Security, stability, you have to contribute to it. And that means the defence budget needs to rise,” he said.

“Part of economic stability is delivered by security in the world and stability, and they are linked. And when people are insecure, it reflects in our markets.”

With Ms Truss trying to rebuild her authority, Mr Wallace is seen by some in the Conservative Party as a possible successor. But he told colleagues fearing defeat in a general election, likely to be called in 2024, that “a week is a long time in politics. So two years is an eternity”.