Defence Committee chair Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi has criticised the decision to postpone key choices on the path to higher defence spending until next year's spending review.
Dhesi welcomed the Budget's full funding of the Defence Investment Plan, but said ministers had not provided the precise route to spending three per cent and eventually 3.5 per cent of gross domestic product on defence.
He argued that delay carried its own cost because military capabilities take time to rebuild and security threats do not follow domestic spending cycles.
The committee chair said the Government would need more than commitments of future increases to turn its defence ambitions into operational capacity.
Dhesi also welcomed the continuing support for Ukraine announced in the Budget. His intervention separates approval of that commitment and the funded investment plan from concern about the longer-term spending timetable.
The statement is scrutiny by a select-committee chair, not a change in government policy. The next substantive test will be whether the spending review publishes a funded annual pathway to both percentage targets.
