article_snippet: Last week the Mail revealed that the Tory manifesto will not commit to keeping defence spending at the Nato target of 2 per cent of national income.
article_snippet: Ministers are under increasing pressure from Tory MPs and senior military figures to commit Britain to meeting the Nato target after 2016.
article_snippet: The most senior civil servant at the Ministry of Defence said that the department would 'clearly' like the Nato target to be met - although The most senior civil servant at the Ministry of Defence said that it would be for ministers in the next government to decide.
article_snippet: Giving evidence to the Commons Public Accounts Committee, Jon Thompson, the permanent secretary at the MoD, said: 'Clearly, we would like 2% of GDP
article_snippet: but that's for the next government to decide.'
article_snippet: Speaking at a campaign event in Colchester, The most senior civil servant at the Ministry of Defence said the UK's defence budget was the fifth largest in the world and second only to the US in the Nato alliance.
article_snippet: So we have that commitment: second largest in Nato, fifth largest in the world. '
highlights_snippet: Tory manifesto will not commit to keeping defence spending at 2% of GDP .
  