The British government is under pressure from the U.S. to raise defence spending because otherwise it could damage the so-called “special relationship” and hand the “top ally” position to France. The British economy is not in a good state and there has been no Brexit dividend, far from it , so where is the British government meant to find the additional cash to spend on defence when the Treasury is already under pressure to provide more funding for the Health Service? I do not think the U.S. should be lecturing Britain on how it should spend tax-payer´s money and they must realise that Britain is involved in one of its biggest political crisis since Suez .
The simple answer is that there is no more money and now is not time to increase defence spending. Now armchair general complain about the state of the armed services but it must be remembered that billions have been spent on two new aircraft carriers, which gives Britain a capability which it has not had for decades. It is reported that there is a 20 billion dollar black hole in the defence budget because three years ago the Ministry of Defence went on a massive spending spree buying U.S. made kit. The subsequent Brexit referendum and the fall of sterling against the dollar has made all this equipment far more expensive. But the orders remain in place despite their cost rising by at least 20 percent. Britain doesn´t need to spend more on defence it needs to spend its money more wisely.