Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson says the government is “determined to get to two and half percent” of GDP for defence spending which she says is “very ambitious”. Report by Blairm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00We recognise the need to spend more on defence.
00:02That's why at the Budget, the Chancellor put in an extra £3bn
00:05alongside the extra £3bn going to Ukraine.
00:08We are determined to get to 2.5%.
00:10It's a manifesto commitment that we made.
00:13We will deliver on that.
00:14We'll set out a pathway towards it,
00:16but I think there is a recognition that defence spending needs to increase,
00:19not just here in Britain, but also our European allies too.
00:22We will be hitting 2.5% and we'll set out the pathway towards it,
00:26so that will involve extra investment in defence
00:28alongside the additional investment the Chancellor already announced at the Budget.
00:33But the Defence Secretary has also been clear
00:35that any extra investment has to go hand-in-hand with reform as well,
00:38because we have far too many examples of wasteful and inefficient spend
00:42and we need to get better value for the taxpayer.
00:442.5% is very ambitious, involves significant extra spend,
00:47is not a figure that has been reached since Labour was last in government.
00:51It's the Conservatives who failed to deliver on that 2.5%.
00:55They've also left the public finances in a really parlous state,
00:58so we have some tough choices about how we make this happen,
01:01but we absolutely will get to 2.5%.