Moment Labour minister is torn to shreds in Sky News car crash

This is the moment the Defence minister Luke Pollard clashed with Sky News host Matt Barbet after Ministers could not guarantee that the Government would spend 3% of the UK’s economic output on defence in the next Parliament. Matt Barbet cut Mr Pollard off to ask "is there a commitment [to raise the defence budget to 3%] from the Chancellor of the Exchequer?"

Mr Pollard responded: "Well there's been no change in this policy since the Prime Minister announced in February."

The news comes after, on Sunday, Defence Secretary John Healey could not confirm that the Treasury would fund the Government’s plan to bring spending up to 3% of GDP by 2034.

Asked on Monday morning whether the 3% commitment remained a guarantee, defence minister Luke Pollard told Times Radio: “Well, we’ve set out that we are spending 2.5% by April 2027, with the ambition to spend 3% in the next parliament, when economic conditions allow.”

Pressed about the commitment, Mr Pollard added: “Well I’ve got no doubt that we will get to 3% in the next parliament, as I’ve said a number of times.”

The defence minister said the strategic defence review, a wide-ranging investigation into the UK’s defence being published on Monday, is the “biggest transformation of our armed forces in 100 years”.

He said: “It seeks to learn the lessons from the war in Ukraine, refresh our capabilities, invest in our people, and underscore that increased defence spending up to 2.5% of our GDP by April 2027 is an engine for growth.”

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