Rishi Sunak rules out defence boost despite Russia being ‘most acute threat to the UK’s security’

Prof Malcolm Chalmers, the deputy director-general at the Royal United Services Institute, told The Telegraph: “I’m surprised that there wasn’t any announcement on defence, apart from the weapons being supplied to Ukraine.” Prof Chalmers said that the latest inflation numbers suggested the MoD was set for a real terms cut in 2022, as well as 2023 and 2024. “It looks to me that we will have defence cuts in real terms for three years in a row,” he said. He added that as a result of the cuts, the MoD will have to “make some difficult decisions on pay levels” - which will in turn put a lot of pressure on the Armed Forces pay review body.