UK military spending needs rise 'to maintain influence'

Former chief of defense staff Lord Gen Nick Houghton said the UK’s defense programme is unaffordable within current budgets and needs to rise if the country is to maintain its relationship with the US and its influence overseas.

Talking to the BBC, Houghton said "We’ve got to make a hard choice therefore. Do we increase the defence budget to make it affordable, or diminish our status as a military power?"

"We have slightly deluded the public that we have a defence programme which insiders know is unaffordable. We are to some extent living a lie. And we stand at a strategic crossroads and we've got to come off the fence one way or another. It might be the UK should cease to be a world military power," he added.

The UK defence secretary, Gavin Williamson has already started a public campaign for funds ahead of the autumn budget, demanding an extra £20bn per year for his department.

A Commons Defence Committee report says the defence budget should rise from 2% of GDP (£40bn) to 3% (£60bn).

The lack of funding could cause the UK to loose its influence with the US, especially with a Nato summit coming up next month in which President Trump is expected to request European allies take on a greater share of the burden of collective defence.

"Military-to-military engagement between the UK and the U.S. is one of the linchpins of the bilateral relationship," the report said, citing both operational and financial benefits.

"However, that will continue to be true only while the UK military retains both the capacity and capability to maintain interoperability with the U.S. military and to relieve U.S. burdens."