Commenting on the Government's announcement that an additional £16.5 billion will be spent on defence, Andrew Allison, Head of Campaigns of The Freedom Association, said: 

"Defence of the realm must be any Government's number one priority, and this £16.5 billion boost to military spending is very welcome news.

"One of our 'Eight Principles of a Free Society' is strong national defences, and it is pleasing that the Prime Minister realises that as we live in a hostile world it is imperative that we defend our country properly.

"This announcement will be seen across the world that the UK is still a major player and a reliable NATO ally." 

ENDS

After the Prime Minister's statement to the House of Commons regarding Russia, Dr Julian Lewis MP, chair of the Defence Committee and a member of The Freedom Association, asked the following question:

"No reasonable person can possibly doubt that the Russian Government have behaved with arrogance, inhumanity and contempt, not least in failing to respond to the Prime Minister’s deadline, which they surely would have done if they had known that they were innocent of this charge. In welcoming the Prime Minister’s expulsion of 23 diplomats who are really intelligence agents, may I ask her to make it clear that any retaliation in kind by the Russian Government will be met by further expulsions, perhaps including even of the ambassador, who spends so much time coming to talk to us in this place, bemoaning the poor state of Anglo-Russian relations? Does she accept that Russia traditionally respects strength and despises weakness, and that the time has come to recognise that 2% of GDP is not enough to spend on defence when we are reverting to the sort of adversarial relationship that we had when we spent a much higher proportion of GDP on ensuring that this country was well defended?"