Mr Wallace said this morning that he had decided to back Ms Truss because he believed she would “do the right thing” by the Ministry of Defence. The foreign secretary has pledged to increase defense spending to 3% of GDP by 2030 if she becomes prime minister. Asked why he had decided to back Ms Truss now, Mr Wallace said: “I thought what I would do at the start of this contest is stop, I’m the defense secretary, I want to get a candidate who will do right by the department and we recognize that the threats we face every day are very real and growing and must be properly funded. “We can’t just pretend they’re going to go away on their own. I looked at their performances, I looked at them at the hustings, but I know them both, I’ve been in the Cabinet for two years with both the chancellor and Liz Truss and so it was important for me to understand who I thought was the right person for to take us forward. “I know Liz. She’s very straightforward, she’s genuine, what you see is what you get, but she’s also been very consistent in her support for defense and security. He reads the same intelligence reports that I do, so I felt like he was the right person to support.”
