The UK will increase the size of its spending on the armed forces by at least £52bn in response to Russian aggression, the defence secretary has said.
Ben Wallace also confirmed new prime minister Liz Truss is sticking to her campaign promise of raising defence spending by 3%.
In his first interview since Ms Truss entered No 10, Mr Wallace told The Sunday Telegraph that the military is “actually going to grow” as a result of the spending increase which he said has come after decades of “defending against cuts or reconciling cuts with modern fighting”.
He added the pledge amounted to an annual defence budget of about £100bn by 2030 – an increase of £52bn on the current sum which the defence secretary called “huge”.
Mr Wallace went on to praise Ms Truss for the funding boost and also hit out at ex-chancellor Rishi Sunak and the Treasury over its “corporate raid” of the armed forces since the 1990s.