Ministers have been accused of playing “silly games with numbers” over their assertion on Tuesday that the increase in defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 would mean £13.4 billion more would be spent on defence every year.
Pushed on whether the £13.4 billion figure would be correct if the assumption was that the Government did not increase the defence budget year-on-year in line with inflation, Mr Healey said: “That’s a cash number.”.
The Defence Secretary has suggested the real-terms increase in defence spending year-on-year will be only around half the £13.4 billion figure cited by the Prime Minister.
John Healey said in real terms, the figure “would be something over £6 billion” and claimed the “definition of defence numbers can be done in different ways”.
Mr Zaranko said: “As a minor note to what is a major announcement, the Prime Minister followed in the steps of the last government by announcing a misleadingly large figure for the ‘extra’ defence spending this announcement entails.
