Low defence budget leaves Britain at mercy of Russia and China, MPs warn

Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director of the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), said: “It’s a bit of good news for defence that there won’t be a cliff edge fall in defence spending in first post-election year.” He said it would be “mainly good news for defence planners and efficiency of how we run the defence budget”. However, Mr Chalmers said the extra money for the three later years would not be enough to increase the proportion of GDP “significantly”. He said: “What it will do is stabilise the defence budget at the increased level provided in the Integrated Review."