In response to Putin’s aggression against Europe the UK are increasing defence spending by at least £52 billion and military will now ‘grow’

In response to Vladimir Putin’s aggression the British Defence Secretary has announced that the UK’s armed forces “are going to grow” as defence spending will increase by £52 billion.

Ben Wallace praised the Prime Minister Liz Truss for sticking to he pledge that she will increase defence spending in the UK by 3%.

Wallace told The Sunday Telegraph the British military is now “actually going to grow” as a direct result of the defence spending increase.

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He said this has come after decades of “defending against cuts or reconciling cuts with modern fighting.”

Wallace accused the former Chancellor Rishi Sunak over the Treasury’s “corporate raid” on the British armed forces over the past 30 years.

“To the point of Rishi’s Treasury trying to stipulate the size of the Army,” Wallace added.

“My department has been so used to 30 or 40 years of defending against cuts or reconciling cuts with modern fighting, they’re going to have to get used to a completely different culture, which is we are actually going to grow, we’re going to actually change.”

Speaking of the new Prime Minister, Wallace said,  “The reason I supported Liz Truss was that the risks we were prepared to tolerate in the middle of the decade are not risks I want to tolerate anymore in light of Russian aggression.

“There are certain risks we can’t really take anymore. And that’s why I wrote to the Chancellor last March to say, the stuff that we didn’t get in the IR that we’d asked for, we do need it.”

Speaking of Kwasi Kwarteng the new Chancellor Wallace said, “The reality is we will be working with the Treasury to ensure we have a budget that grows to meet the threat and our ambitions.

“Kwasi is going to be a great, open Chancellor… He’s not going to shut the door to Number 11 and hide behind it.”