As the Conservative Party leadership campaign evolves, most of the campaigning is on Brexit with little or nothing on other issues. It is perhaps inevitable: the electorate of around 160,000 is drawn primarily from older and wealthier white males, reportedly leavened by over 20,000 recent joiners from the ranks of UKIP and the Brexit Party. Thus the adult care crisis, growing NHS waiting lists, crumbling schools, homelessness, pay-day debt, food banks and the rest appear nowhere in the rhetoric because they are scarcely relevant to this small electorate.
There is one issue that is not strictly Brexit which is permeating its way into the campaigning, though: defence. Boosting Britain’s military power is a key part in the greater scheme of ‘Making Britain Great Again’.
Of the two candidates, it is Jeremy Hunt, the underdog who has been more explicit on this issue. He has called for an early 25% increase in defence spending to around 2.5% of GNP by 2023-24. He had earlier called for a doubling to 4.0% by that date but it is the 25% increase is currently getting the attention.
