Good morning, and good luck making sense of the following sequence of events: first, well sourced reports that defence secretary Ben Wallace is asking for spending on the armed forces to be increased to 2.5% of GDP. Then, the head of the army saying we’re in a “1937 moment” and need to urgently replenish our forces. And then, the government ditching its manifesto commitment to increase spending by 0.5% above inflation.
Then, Wallace denied he asked for that 2.5% commitment in an interview, but sounded pretty critical of the government’s approach. Then, Boris Johnson insisted the 0.5% target would be met this year, around the same time that Wallace made a speech saying that “as the threat changes so must the funding”. And this morning, the Daily Telegraph reports that Downing Street was “furious” at Wallace’s speech and intervened to water it down.
