As far as I can see he is making two claims

1. "He might have had a complaint if we were cutting the defence budget every year, but it is rising every year. The only time the defence budget has been cut was in the 10 years before 1997..." Simply true.

2. "The right hon. Gentleman cannot deny the fact that the budget is rising every year in real terms..." Again true - it is now rising every year in real terms, and has done since 2008.

However this bit "it was cut by 30 per cent. by a Conservative Government?by half a billion a year". is nonsense. It was cut by half a billion but that is less than 3% - nothing like 30%. And Brown didn't actually answer the question that was asked anyway.

Posted By: Black Creosote Time, Mar 10, 23:52:58