Grant Shapps said he would “fight” for a higher budget for the Defense Ministry, but would lobby Rishi Sunak for extra money “my way”.

The Secretary of Defense was asked this morning if he would be as loud as his predecessor Ben Wallace was in calling for more funding.

He told Sky News: “I am now in charge of the Ministry of Defense and as Secretary of State I will of course always defend my position.

“In fact, from my point of view, it is very useful to come here, the amount that we are spending, the proportion of our gross domestic product that we are spending on defense, is increasing and we have already said that we want to see that in the long term, if conditions permit, it will rise to 2.5 percent. It is already over £50bn.

“I fully support it. I think it’s very important that we’re protected as a nation, but also that we’re doing our part around the world to help make the world better protected.”

Asked again if he will be as vociferous as Wallace, Shapps said: “I’ll do it my way, but as I say, I’ve spoken before about my desire to see a bigger defense budget, long before I took this job. “

Shapps publicly called for defense spending to rise to 3 percent of GDP last year during the Conservative leadership race. Sunak has rejected calls for 3 percent but has said his ambition is to reach 2.5 percent in the long term.

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