Jeremy Hunt calls for huge increase in defence spending to help ‘our great ally the United States’

Foreign secretary’s hawkish proposal to strengthen ‘hard power’ likely to win favour with Tory members in looming leadership contest

Jeremy Hunt: 'We face a more aggressive Russia and a more assertive China' (EPA)

Jeremy Hunt has called for a huge increase in defence spending and the UK’s “hard power”, in a speech likely to win favour with Tory members in the looming leadership contest.

Delivering the annual Mansion House address, the foreign secretary praised the military might of “our great ally” the United States, under Donald Trump – and said Britain must do the same.

“We face a more aggressive Russia and a more assertive China,” Mr Hunt said, echoing sacked defence secretary Gavin Williamson’s controversial warnings about China.

“We simply do not know what the balance of power in the world will be in 25 years’ time.”

And, pointing to the USA, he added: “It is simply not sustainable to expect one Nato ally to spend nearly 4 per cent of its GDP on defence while the others spend between 1 and 2 per cent.

“So, for these and other reasons, I believe it is time for the next strategic defence and security review to ask whether, over the coming decade, we should decisively increase the proportion of GDP we devote to defence.”

Mr Hunt did not set out the scale of the increase needed, but the current defence budget – at 2 per cent of GDP – is £36bn, so a big increase could cost tens of billions.

Although Theresa May has spoken of the “end of austerity”, most of the spending increase planned will be swallowed up by the NHS, with little left for other departments.

Mr Hunt’s hawkish speech comes as a range of senior Tories position themselves to replace Ms May, who could be forced out as early as the summer as the Brexit stalemate drags on.

Although he has not declared himself a future candidate, he is widely expected to run having already sought to cast himself as the champion of “One Nation Conservatism”.

However, having backed Remain in the Brexit referendum, Mr Hunt will have ground to make up among the Tory membership which will pick the next leader.

In the speech, Mr Hunt acknowledged the UK already accounts for almost 20 per cent of EU defence spending, with 40 per cent of transport aircraft and two new aircraft carriers that are the “most formidable warships in Europe”.

But he warned: “The threat picture, so dramatically reduced at the end of the cold war, has changed markedly. We are in a multipolar world without the assurance provided by unquestioned American dominance.”

The only way to “defend Enlightenment values” was to invest in cyberwarfare and “the immense capabilities of artificial intelligence will transform the conduct of warfare”.

Mr Hunt added: “Our aim, as ever, is to deter and avoid the horror of war in the knowledge that strength is the surest guarantee of peace.

“The outcome of such investment should demonstrate beyond doubt that, when we say Britain stands for the defence of democratic values, when we promise never to leave our great ally, the United States, to perform this task alone, then we are as good as our word.”