Jeremy Hunt calls for more defence spending

Foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt has called for more of Britain's GDP to be spent on defence in a bid to make the country safer.

Speaking at the Lord Mayor's Banquet in London this week, he said artificial intelligence technology and cyber attacks mean the UK faces very different threats than was the case after the Cold War.

As such, he argued, more funding should be diverted towards "new capabilities and not simply plugging gaps" after Brexit.

Mr Hunt added that it is unfair for the US to be spending four per cent of its GDP on defence while its NATO allies only contribute one to two per cent.

"For these and other reasons I believe it is time for the next Strategic Defence and Security Review to ask whether, over the coming decade, we should decisively increase the proportion of GDP we devote to defence," the minister concluded.

Spending commitments will be decided in the Comprehensive Spending Review this autumn, while the next full-scale Strategic Defence and Security Review is due in 2020.