'It's fake!': Burnham accused of inflating defence spending | The Daily T podcast

In Tuesday’s episode of The Daily T, Tim Stanley and Jacob Rees-Mogg are joined by Sir Ben Wallace, the former Tory defence secretary. Sir Ben has accused the Government of falsifying spending on the defence budget in order to appear closer to reaching the pledged 3 per cent of GDP by 2030. He criticised the Government for taking only a superficial step towards the target and falling behind its European allies. He said: “Germany, Poland, the Baltics, Scandinavians, have put their money where their mouth is. Denmark even cancelled a public holiday to increase tax revenues to fund it. We have done press releases.”

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CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Ben Wallace on UK Defence Spending
01:40 - The "Treasury Tricks" & Creative Accounting
04:24 - Why Arbitrary GDP Spending Targets Fail
07:49 - The Real Defence Budget & Military Readiness
09:12 - Rhetoric vs Reality in British Defence
12:40 - John Healey & the Challenge for Labour
14:23 - Will Young People Fight for Britain?
17:08 - High-Tech Warfare vs Boots on the Ground

► The Daily T covers The Budget 2026 Live from 12.30pm on Wednesday 28th October.
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