Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom
Main Page: Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom (Conservative - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom's debates with the Ministry of Defence
(11 years, 2 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Hammond
The Prime Minister has made it clear that he stands by his view that the equipment plan budget needs to increase in real terms, and we have a pledge from Her Majesty’s Treasury that we may plan on the assumption of a 1% real-terms increase. Our planning assumption is flat real-terms growth for the remainder of the budget.
Mr James Arbuthnot (North East Hampshire) (Con)
I do not think that that was precisely what the Prime Minister said. Nevertheless, does my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State agree that if we possibly can we should continue to meet the NATO objective of spending at least 2% of our gross domestic product on defence?
Mr Hammond
I agree with my right hon. Friend. The plans that we have set out do indeed show that we will continue to comply with that 2% threshold.