Political pledges are made to be broken and – even under the best of intentions – are prone to falling victim to constantly changing realities, such as fiscal pressures brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. That manifesto pledges to “continue to exceed the NATO target of spending 2 per cent of GDP on defence and increase the budget by at least 0.5 per cent above inflation every year of the new Parliament” on page 55 of the 64-page document under the subheading “Putting Our National Security First.”
The idea of future defense investment levels failing to outpace the assumed rate of inflation is contrary to the Conservative manifesto Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s party issued prior to the snap election held on December 12, 2019. mY9FbJoAs1Ĭontrary to the executive summary, the defense spending portfolio estimates for the upcoming years might be seen as a form of “savings,” enabling government investment to be shifted elsewhere (to the National Health Service, Justice, or Foreign & Commonwealth Office?). Obviously, this is misleading per the review’s own spending tables laid out toward the end of the document.įrom today's Spending Review: Defence spending will now fall in real terms over the next 3 years with the MoD the clear loser amongst the major spending departments.Ĭontrasts somewhat with the rhetoric. This is made all the more interesting in that the “Executive Summary” subheading on page 5 of the document includes a statement that every department’s overall spending will experience a real-term increase under SR21. defense budget will grow by only 1.5 percent nominally.īut more eye-catching is that the document indicates shrinking investment in defense in real terms (by -0.4 percent).
Sifting through the number tables included in the 200-page PDF, one element jumps out to defense observers: in future planning years stretching out to 2025, the U.K. Spending Review sets departmental budgets out to fiscal year 2024-2025. British Finance Minister Rishi Sunak unveiled the Conservative government’s Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021 ( SR21) on October 27.
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