Asked if ministers were misleading the public, Mr Reynolds told GB News: “So, very clearly, the answer is no on that. It’s a little bit rich of Mr Wallace to say that.
“I think his own quote on his own government he served in was that they hollowed out the armed forces. These definitions are international.”
He added: “There’s nothing specific to the UK about this. But the idea that we wouldn’t include the incredible work of our intelligence services, security services, given the nature of modern threats to the UK, I’m afraid I have no time for this argument at all. There’s nothing in it.
“I think what, respectfully, Mr Wallace should focus on is, whichever definition you are using, there is more money going into it under this government than the plans that we inherited, and there’ll be more announcements on this in future.
“But I find it so rich that the people who, in their own words, hollowed out the British armed forces at a time of war in Europe, have something to say about this government, which has put more money into both and is continuing to do so, which is exactly what this country needs.”
Mr Reynolds’s remarks follow Sir Ben’s accusation that the Government is inflating its defence budget by including billions of pounds in intelligence spending.
He claims the move creates a misleading impression that Britain is on course to meet its Nato spending commitments.
Nato rules stipulate that funding for security services does not qualify as defence expenditure.
In a letter, Sir Ben wrote: “As the world gets more unstable and our allies start spending real cash increases in their budgets, Britain seems to be falling behind.
“Telling the men and women of the Armed Forces and the public that they are spending more while in real terms day-to-day funding on our Armed Forces is being cut is an insult to them. It fools no one inside defence, our allies and our enemies.”
The Office for Statistics Regulation confirmed it would consider the concerns raised in Sir Ben’s complaint.
A spokesman said: “We can confirm that the Office for Statistics Regulation will consider the concerns that have been raised with us in relation to the presentation of UK defence spending by the Government.”
A Government spokesman told GB News: “The UK is the third highest spender in Nato and we, as with all Allies, calculate defence expenditure in accordance with Nato’s definition, which has not changed.”
