May: Inflation-Busting Defence Spending Rises For Five Years

Professor Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director of defence think tank the Royal United Services Institute said: "The extension of the annual 0.5% commitment for another two years is significant, not least because it protects defence to some extent from the uncertainty about the impact of Brexit on government finances overall - and the possibility that a new spending review might require further cuts. It should mean that defence will broadly maintain its current share of government spending."