The subject of global defence will be top of the agenda on Friday as defence secretary John Healey and foreign secretary David Lammy travel to Germany for the Munich Security Conference, where European allies are expected to thrash out a response to Mr Trump’s change in stance.
Mr Trump’s position also triggered warnings from military figures, including former defence secretary Ben Wallace, who said the UK will have to “step up to fill the void in Europe and show our own leadership”, arguing that the US’s domestic agenda could embolden hostile actors.
And as Nato members scramble to boost their defence spending, Mr Trump has said he wants them to spend as much as 5 per cent of GDP on their armed forces.
But speaking on Friday, technology secretary Peter Kyle defended the government’s target, telling Sky News: “The last time that Britain spent 2.5 per cent of its GDP on defence, was under the last Labour government.
Sir Keir Starmer has been warned even spending 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence won’t be enough amid an increasingly turbulent global landscape and pressure from Donald Trump for Europe to bolster its own defences.
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