Latest updates: defence secretary claims story based on misunderstanding as PM prepares to speak at Nato summit
Good morning. Boris Johnson is at the Nato summit in Madrid today, and Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, has been doing the morning interview round. The Daily Telegraph splashes today on a story saying Boris Johnson faces a cabinet split over defence spending. It says:
The Telegraph can reveal that Downing Street intervened to water down calls for higher defence expenditure from Ben Wallace in a speech delivered on Tuesday.
Mr Wallace, the Defence Secretary, was due to argue that spending just two per cent of GDP on defence was outdated. However, the line was removed at Number 10’s request.
There were some words in my speech that were taken out because the prime minister is going to say them today.
I think the centre just wanted to make sure that he said it before the defence secretary said it. It is perfectly legitimate. It was his words. There is nothing conspiracy in it, I’m afraid.
In the here and now we are rightly set. The question is what happens in the middle of the decade.
My settlement was done before Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia is very, very dangerous on the world stage. The world is less secure than it was two, three years ago and is not looking likely to change for the rest of the decade.
