Tory MPs have criticised the Government for being ‘blind’ to the soaring threats Britain faces and accused it of freeloading off the US. Former Army captain John Baron said yesterday that the UK was ‘ignoring the lessons of history at our peril’ by refusing to commit to spend 2 per cent of national income on defence. He said claims that Britain boasts the world’s fifth largest defence budget ‘rings hollow’ when the Ministry of Defence is slashing manpower and capabilities. Tory MP John Baron, left, urged Prime Minister David Cameron to commit at least two per cent of the  budget to defence spending as US General Raymond Odierno warned over 'unthinkable' cuts to the British Army . The Basildon and Billericay MP said ‘misguided military interventions’ in the last decade, including Iraq and Afghanistan, had distracted the UK from the ‘greater danger of state on state’ threats from countries such as Russia. He added: ‘Failing defence budgets across Nato have emboldened the Russian president, who has concluded that the heart has gone out of the alliance. This is dangerous.’ He called on the Government to spend 3 to 4 per cent of national income on defence, saying it was ‘nonsense’ that on current projections Britain will be spending the same on defence as on foreign aid in 15 years. Referencing comments made by the US chief of staff General Raymond Odierno, he said the idea of British brigades serving within American divisions because of severe cuts to numbers was ‘unthinkable’ only a decade ago. A total of 37 MPs, the majority of whom are Tories, backed a motion in Parliament yesterday to set the defence budget at 2 per cent of national income in law, in a significant challenge to David Cameron just weeks ahead of the election. The motion, headed by Mr Baron, was passed but has no legal force. Rory Stewart, chairman of the defence select committee, waded into the four-hour debate in the Commons, saying that Britain was acting as a ‘freeloader’ to the US. He told MPs: ‘These threats are real. The world is genuinely becoming more dangerous, and Britain cannot be a freeloader. ‘People stand up and list all the different kit that we have bought, but they do not intend ever to use it.’ He added that ‘they’ were ‘freeloading’ by thinking ‘that Britain will never act alone, that the United States will somehow fill in all the gaps’. Mr Baron warned that Britain faced a significant threat from countries such as Russia . He said that if the UK was serious about defence, the Government would need to look at ballistic missiles, upgrading elite units and protecting soldiers against chemical weapons with special suits. A study by the impartial House of Commons library released this week revealed that current plans suggest defence spending will represent only 1.87 per cent of national income next year. Tory MP Simon Reevell described the Prime Minister’s suggestion that intelligence service spending could count towards the 2 per cent target as ‘kindergarten economics’. Tory Jack Lopresti said Iraq and Afghanistan showed ‘what happens when you try and deploy troops abroad on the cheap, without being properly equipped’. Mr Baron agreed: ‘It took the Americans to put in another 20,000 troops before we pulled that situation round. We require armed forces of sufficient capability and capacity to respond to any challenge.’
Tory MPs have warned the government about cuts in defence spending . John Baron MP said Britain was 'ignoring the lessons of history'
He said David Cameron should commit to a minimum two per cent spend . MPs said defence spending could come at the expense of foreign aid .