West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin has welcomed a massive boost in defence spending that could benefit a wide range of county employers.

The Government has announced the biggest increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War with a focus on cyber security, artificial intelligence and space technology.

The increase of £24.1 billion over four years will spent on defence to transform our Armed Forces, bolster our global influence, unite and level up our country, pioneer new technology and will take the total defence budget over the next four years to £200 billion – an increase to 2.2 per cent of GDP – above the NATO target of 2 per cent.

Malvern is at the heart of a cluster of successful defence and cyber businesses – nicknamed ‘cyber valley’ and Harriett hopes that the huge spending commitment will benefit local businesses and create new local jobs.

Harriett said: “The defence industry has been important to this area for many decades since Winston Churchill located his brilliant brains in the shadow of the Malvern Hills to defeat Nazi Germany.

“We have seen generations of innovative thinkers base themselves in and around Malvern either working at what is now QinetiQ or one of the many spin-off companies that germinated there. There are space experts located right here in Malvern.

“Over the course of the last ten years, we have seen consistent support for the growing cyber security industry, and I hope that this significant increase in defence spending will see local employers of all sizes able to take advantage of these opportunities to create new jobs and grow.

“I am representing the UK at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly this week and this is welcome news that the UK is such a strong player in our collective defence.”