The Prime Minister admitted in the House of Commons today that defence expenditure had not risen in real terms in every year since 1997, a claim he made to the Chilcot Inquiry and to Parliament.

He conceded that the claims had been wrong and said he would be writing to Sir John Chilcot to correct the record. The mystery is why he ever believed the claim, as the evidence is clear. The table below is taken from a report by the House of Commons Library of 16 December 2009.
 
This shows that while spending has risen year by year in cash terms, there have been four years, including 1997-98, when it has fallen in real terms. The falls in the 1990s, the years of the so-called “peace dividend” after the end of the Cold War, were much swifter. But defence spending then was a higher proportion of GDP than it is now.
 
                
 
Strikingly, the libary’s report suggests that at 2.5 per cent of GDP, defence spending now is lower than at any time since 1930, when it was 2.6 per cent of GDP.