00:00Well this was a manifesto commitment we made to the British people in the election last summer
00:04that we would increase defence spending to 2.5% of what we produce as a country.
00:08That's a level we've not seen for 15 years. It's certainly true Donald Trump has
00:14reinforced the challenge not just to the UK but to other European nations to step up
00:19so he's reinforced the importance and the imperative and I'm glad that the US have
00:24welcomed the announcement yesterday and when I spoke to the defence secretary in the US yesterday
00:30he said this is a strong step from an enduring partner. It's a good basis for Keir Starmer as
00:36he goes to Washington tomorrow. We're delivering the promise we made to the British people. We're
00:41doing it three years before anyone thought we would and we won't stop there. It's the start
00:46and Keir Starmer made clear that in the next parliament because of the threats we face we
00:52will raise defence spending further to 3%. When Keir Starmer talked about in cash terms an extra
00:5913 billion pounds being spent on defence in 2027 compared to today that's exactly the extra cash
01:06that we'll spend and in the end you can cut these figures in different ways. You can do it in cash
01:11terms, you can do it in real terms taking account of inflation, proportion of the GDP what the
01:17country produces. In the end the most important thing as the Institute for Fiscal Studies recognised
01:23is that this was an historic announcement and it's the biggest increase in defence spending
01:28in this country since the end of the Cold War.
