Penny Mordaunt speaking for ‘many’ Tories on defence spending, says ex-minister

Penny Mordaunt was speaking for “many” Conservatives when she sparked Cabinet tensions with an apparent call for more spending on the Navy, a former defence minister has said.

Downing Street was forced to play down suggestions of a split in Rishi Sunak’s team after Ms Mordaunt, the Commons Leader, shared an article detailing the shrinking British naval fleet while adding: “The Royal Navy and its partners must keep pace with the growing capabilities of other nations. If not Britain’s interests cannot be secured.”

A Government source said her comments were “consistent” with agreed policy to boost defence spending to 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) when the public finances allow.

But Tory former defence minister Tobias Ellwood said Ms Mordaunt, a former Navy reserve who is still said to harbour leadership ambitions, was “saying what many others were thinking” about the need to ramp up spending on the military more quickly.

Mr Ellwood, who backed Ms Mordaunt for the Tory leadership in 2022, said he had raised defence spending in a meeting about the spring Budget with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt last week, stressing “the symbiotic relationship between our economy and our security”.

“Our world is becoming increasingly fragmented and contested,” Mr Ellwood told i.

“As events in the Red Sea illustrate, our own economy suffers if we don’t step forward to defend our global order.

“Yet all three services (sea, land and air) are overstretched given the increasing tempo of operations expected of them.

“Our peace time defence budget of 2 per cent GDP is no longer sufficient”

“Without improving our defence posture our prosperity will suffer.”

Last week, i analysis found that compared to the aftermath of the Falklands War, the number of services personnel has shrunk by about 60 per cent from more than 320,000 to its current level of some 134,000 full-time, fully-trained staff in the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force.

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, who last week made the case for increased Western defence spending, could not say on Sunday when the Tories’ pledge to hit 2.5 per cent of GDP would be met.

“We’re comfortably above 2%,” he told Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips.

“But we are pledged to, when conditions allow, get to 2.5%.”

Challenged over when that goal would be hit, he told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “There is a trajectory upwards.

“I can’t give you the exact date because we’ve always said it’s as the economic conditions allow.

“But the point is we’re working to a plan.”

He defended Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s focus on tax cuts rather than upping defence spending, arguing “people do want to see more of the money that they earn kept”.

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper would not commit to Labour spending 3 per cent of GDP a year on defence if elected.

On Sky News, she said: “Decisions for future spending if Labour wins the election would be for a Labour chancellor…

“But we have been clear about the importance of our national security.

“National security is the bedrock on which everything else in the country and everybody’s wellbeing is built and so of course that includes supporting our Armed Forces and making sure that they have the investment and the support that they need.”