Boris Johnson today launched an attack on NATO’s spending figures - claiming the alliance had miscalculated how much the UK pumps into defence.
The Prime Minister tried to dismiss the official alliance figure, unveiled yesterday by coalition Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, showing the UK spent 2.12% of GDP on defence.
The Prime Minister instead claimed it was 2.3%.
“Last year we were the third biggest defence spender in the world, we’ve got another £24billion going in under the current spending review - the biggest since the end of the Cold War,” he said.
“We are currently running at 2.3% of our GDP going on defence.”
Told the alliance arrived at a different figure for Britain’s contribution, Mr Johnson hit back: “We’re right.”
It is understood the Government includes the money it spends supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia.
The PM was speaking aboard his Airbus A321 jet as he flew to Madrid for a NATO Summit, with a row over plans to ditch an election manifesto pledge set to overshadow his trip.
Mr Johnson told reporters on the plane: “I know some of you have been interested in the point whether 0.5% above inflation - we’ve been running way ahead of that target for a while and we are confident we will meet that,” he said.
“You don’t look at inflation as a single data, you look at it over the lifetime of the Parliament and we are confident we will meet that.”
However, the manifesto promised to “increase the budget by at least 0.5% above inflation every year of the new Parliament” - rather than over its lifetime.
Mr Johnson could even press allies to agree a new floor for spending at the summit in the Spanish capital.
Currently, members are supposed to hit a target of spending 2% of their GDP on the military.
In reality, the UK is just one of nine countries that meets the threshold.
Asked if he wanted a new, higher base, the PM said: “We will be having a conversation with friends and colleagues at the summit.”
