He praised the country for choosing to divert money from maintaining an army to supporting rewilding.

And it wouldn't cost the taxpayer anything or divert money from other parts of the economy, as the money would come straight from polluting companies.

They ask which taxes should be increased and which other spending programmes cut to divert money to defence.

Institutional investors would probably divert money into government bonds, whose yields are already at historic lows.

The disclosure comes as the government faces pressure to divert money to protect defence spending.