Kemi Badenoch has urged the government to cut housing benefits, child benefits, and re-route public investment to fund a £10bn annual boost in defence spending. The Conservative leader stated that Chancellor John Healey "should adopt" these plans.
The proposed Conservative plan includes undoing two-child benefit cap spending, which costs approximately £3bn a year, and scrapping the Chagos Islands handover, which could raise about £200m annually. Badenoch also indicated that funding for the British Business Bank, the National Wealth Fund, and a research and development fund would be pulled back to add nearly £8bn to the defence budget. Tory officials suggest that reforms to housing benefits could save another £4bn.
Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge stated that the Conservatives aim to "cut the welfare bill, reprioritise funding from other areas and invest an extra £10bn a year in our armed forces so we can meet our 3 per cent target."
The government has stated it will set out a plan to raise defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP in next year’s Spending Review.