Al Carns: “It is down to the Prime Minister to make his decisions where he wants to prioritise his spending.”

He is a man of his word and he has made it clear that he will deliver on the commitments that led him to leave government in the first place.

The character of conflict is changing faster than our procurement can keep up with. We are still purchasing capability suitable for the last war while our adversaries arm for the next one.

I have said that there are issues facing this department that do not lend themselves to easy answers, and that there needs to be agreement throughout the Government about the scale of the challenges we face.

Spending 2.68% of GDP by 2030 is not a serious answer to a world where the character of warfare has changed fundamentally.