Penny Mordaunt has called for an Israeli-style “Iron Dome” missile defence system for Britain.
The Commons Leader, a former Tory leadership hopeful, broke ranks to urge Rishi Sunak to boost defence spending.
Her highly unusual intervention comes after Iran launched more than 300 drones at Israel last week.
But most were intercepted due to Israel’s air defences including the “Iron Dome” system, while the UK was one of several countries which helped counter the unprecented attack.
The ex-defence secretary told The Sunday Telegraph: “To those that say about our defence ambitions ‘we can’t do, shouldn’t do or can’t afford to do’, I say ‘look to Israel’ – a nation a fraction of our size that has staved off an attack from a nation 10 times its size.
“It has made a choice. It has made it work. We may not have its daily reminders of the threats we face, but we have the same duty to our citizens.
“Israel’s defence is our defence, and we must be ready to defend our allies the same way that we would defend ourselves, as we did last weekend.”
The newspaper reported that No 10 and the Treasury have previously snubbed a request from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for a British “Iron Dome”.
The formidable defence system is designed to protect against incoming short-range weapons.
It uses a radar to track rockets and fires missiles to intercept those expected to strike populated areas.
It is the Portsmouth North MP’s second intervention on defence spending, which is expected to be a major issue in a future Conservative leadership campaign.
The Royal Navy reservist earlier this year told Chancellor Jeremy Hunt the Government’s “first duty” is to protect Britain amid a backlash over a lack of extra cash for the MoD in the Budget.
Ms Mordaunt’s call for the UK to have an “Iron Dome” has been backed by former defence chiefs including Lord Dannatt, who was Chief of the General Staff from 2006 to 2009.
Britain is currently protected by a combination of the Sky Sabre medium-range, ground-based air defence, Type-45 destroyers and Typhoon jets.
