This record investment puts the security of the British public first, transforming our Armed Forces and giving them the funding and equipment they need to fight and defend our nation.

By any measure, this is a huge historic shift for our nation and a legacy in which I take pride.

We will keep the UK safe and secure long into the future.

I am absolutely certain that this is the platform on which whoever comes after me can build.

The best way to defend is to deter, to have the strength to make your adversaries think again before they act.

And that is what we are doing.

the single most successful military alliance the world has ever known

When the world is arming and aggression is rising, the best way to avoid war is to prepare for it.

Instead, it is funded by reallocating spending from across Government departments, reallocating capital budgets by one penny in every pound, while still maintaining public investment at the highest sustained levels since the 1970s.

This game-changing investment will strengthen our Armed Forces on land, at sea and in the air, ensuring our servicemen and women have the cutting-edge capabilities they need to deter evolving threats and keep the British people safe.

At the same time, we are backing British innovation, British industry and British jobs and delivering opportunity to every corner of the country.

The SDR made clear that a modernised nuclear deterrent is essential for the defence of the UK. It underpins our security in a new nuclear age and worsening security environment, characterised by Russia’s aggression, China’s nuclear…