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Speaker 1: Elizabeth Callahan is our UK correspondent. Elizabeth. Hello, Hi, they're Hea.

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Speaker 2: They're doing well.

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Speaker 1: Thank you. Can you guys afford five percent on defense spending?

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Speaker 2: No? Absolutely not so. Obviously Donald Trump is calling for

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Speaker 2: NATO nations to spend five percent of its GDP on defense.

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Speaker 2: We're having arguments in the UK at the moment about

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Speaker 2: pushing it to three percent. So all of this week.

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Speaker 2: I s which to you earlier this week about pressure

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Speaker 2: on the government to increase it to thirty percent to

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Speaker 2: pay for this big strategic defense review that they unveiled

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Speaker 2: earlier this week. So Pete Hogsworth has reiterated this again

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Speaker 2: this morning, taking a message to Brussels where defense NATO

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Speaker 2: defense ministers are meeting and saying that they want this

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Speaker 2: five percent. And as they say, the defense ministers are

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Speaker 2: all meeting, our Defense Secretary John Healy is kind of

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Speaker 2: trying to get away from the whole percentage at all

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Speaker 2: by talking about this review that we published this week.

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Speaker 2: But we've said the three percent would be going up

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Speaker 2: in the next parliamentary term. Starmers said that, but won't

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Speaker 2: confirm when. And obviously that's really far away, and we're

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Speaker 2: up to two point five in twenty twenty seven. But

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Speaker 2: there's this is another headache really for our chancellor Rachel Reads.

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Speaker 2: It's trying to balance the books, trying to give money

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Speaker 2: to you know, lots and lots of different departments, and

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Speaker 2: I just don't know how this is going to pay

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Speaker 2: unless there's going to be tax rises even to get

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Speaker 2: to the three percent.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you guys could go down the path that

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Speaker 1: we've gone down, which Argentina has gone down in a

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Speaker 1: really significant way, and actually cut spending. I mean, I

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Speaker 1: feel like even the labor government is lining up for

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Speaker 1: a little bit of a trimbeck on the welfare. Don't

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Speaker 1: you think.

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Speaker 2: That is a brave move there, Heather, You and not

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Speaker 2: you know, getting pressured. I think there's so much pressure

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Speaker 2: now from NATO and Trump and you know they want.

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Speaker 1: To shot my idea. That's the just shot it down.

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Speaker 2: It's just not gonna happen. I'm afraid.

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Speaker 1: It's a pretty ask for you guys. Yeah, we'll try.

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Speaker 1: Oh look at what the baby steps on our side.

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Speaker 1: Don't worry about it. We're hardly there as well. Listen,

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Speaker 1: how on earth did the scammers actually get the bitter

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Speaker 1: of the tax authority?

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Speaker 2: I have no idea. So h and masts are government

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Speaker 2: tax office and it's been revealed today. This came to

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Speaker 2: light in a select committee, usually very very dull kind

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Speaker 2: of committees. Scammers have stolen nearly fifty million pounds from

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Speaker 2: the tax authority through a fishing scam. So this isn't

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Speaker 2: a cyber attack. We're hacking. They're very keen to say that,

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Speaker 2: even though it is kind of a kind of to

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Speaker 2: be honest. So people use personal information to set up

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Speaker 2: accounts and then went on to claim tax rebates. So

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Speaker 2: quite back, quite how forty seven million pounds went missing

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Speaker 2: without nobody's sort of realizing, you know, they've said it's

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Speaker 2: a lot of money. It is very unacceptable.

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Speaker 1: But the.

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Speaker 2: Parliamentary chairs is like, how on earth has this got

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Speaker 2: to happen? And how are we only hearing about it?

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Speaker 2: This happened last year, There has been a criminal investigation,

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Speaker 2: there has been a rest, but this is only really

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Speaker 2: coming to light now. The press has got a hold

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Speaker 2: of it, so lots of questions and obviously that's money

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Speaker 2: that could be going towards our defense.

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Speaker 1: Well, there you go, there you go, all welfare, depending

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Speaker 1: on how you want to split it, Elizabeth, there's a

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Speaker 1: lot of places, Elizabeth, Thank you has always appreciated. Elizabeth Callahan,

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Speaker 1: our UK correspond For more from Hither Duplessy Alan Drive,

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