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Hello, I'm Alicia McCarthy.

Thanks for downloading the yesterday in Parliament podcast.

On Tuesday, the 25th of February,

the Prime Minister announced a big boost to defence spending.

Sarkia Stama said he'd cut international aid funding to pay for it.

Sarkier Stama reckoned the world had changed

when the full-scale invasion of Ukraine had begun three years ago

and Russian tanks had rolled across its border.

Parents like Putin only respond to strength.

Russia is a menace in our waters, in our airspace and on our streets.

Donald Trump has long-demanded European nations spend more on defence,

and ahead of his meeting, Kirstama announced he was making good on a promise to push up the budget.

Starting today, I can announce this government will begin the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War.

And that meant increasing defence funding to 2.5% of national income by 2027, which the Prime Minister said would mean spending more than £13 billion a year extra

with an ambition of more still in the next Parliament.

There'd be more money for the intelligence and security services too

to tackle things like cyber attacks.

But there was silence when Kirstama announced where the money would come from in the short term

with a multi-billion pound cut to international development.

I want to be clear to the House.

That is not an announcement I am happy to make.

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