Minister calls on Burnham to show path to 3.5% target on UK defence spending

Challenger 3, the British army’s next-generation battle tank, at Tankfest in Bovington, Dorset, last month Photograph: Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images

The new defence secretary, Dan Jarvis, has called on Andy Burnham to increase defence spending dramatically from 2030 and “evidence the trajectory” towards a Nato target that would mean £25bn a year more for the military by the middle of the next decade.

The former paratrooper said he was confident that the prime minister-in-waiting valued national security, as he openly lobbied him for cash that would probably have to come from cuts elsewhere.