Sir Keir Starmer is under mounting pressure to explain his plans to ramp up the UK’s defence spending – with calls for it to go as high as 3 per cent of GDP.
The Prime Minister will hold talks in Washington DC next week with Donald Trump, who has demanded that all European countries spend more on the military.
Starmer has sought to avoid publicly disagreeing with the US President, although this week he issued an implicit rebuke to Trump’s claim that Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelensky is a “dictator”.
On Thursday, Rachel Reeves issued her strongest signal yet that defence spending will rise sooner rather than later – even if it requires cuts to other parts of the public sector.
The Chancellor told ITV News: “We will stick to our fiscal rules. But recognising the priority of defence spending in the world that we live in today means that we will have to make difficult choices so that we can spend that money that is needed to keep our country safe.”
Defence spending currently amounts to around 2.3 per cent of UK GDP, which is higher than the Nato target of 2 per cent. In its election manifesto, Labour promised to increase the military’s budget to at least 2.5 per cent, which would cost around £5bn extra a year, while reaching 3 per cent would cost at least £15bn.
Reeves added: “I am absolutely committed to spending 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence. I’m really clear that a strong economy depends on strong defences and our national security being protected, so we will set out that pathway to 2.5 per cent of GDP.”
It marks a subtle change in tone from the Chancellor. The i Paper previously revealed that the Treasury had been pushing for the 2.5 per cent target date to be as late as 2034.
Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, the Labour MP who chairs the Commons defence committee, told The i Paper that ministers need to accelerate their plan for a defence spending boost.
He said: “I’m reiterating my call to the Government for setting out a clear timetable ASAP about how we’re going to reach 2.5 per cent defence spend. At this critical troubling time for our continent’s defence and security, given Russia’s imperialistic designs, we as a nation must show leadership. That is what our friends and allies are also expecting of us.
“Given the potential absence or significant reduction of American presence, this is our time as a nation to step up to the plate and take leadership on defence for the European continent.”
Jeremy Hunt, the former chancellor and foreign secretary, told the BBC that the defence budget should rise as high as 3.2 per cent while James Cleverly, another Conservative ex-foreign secretary, said: “The UK needs to significantly increase defence spending, 3 per cent is a credible level, there really is no excuse.”
General Sir Richard Shirreff, formerly Nato’s second-in-command in Europe, said: “Europe and Canada have got to step up to the mark and do it themselves… And that means significant increases in defence spending from the very start.
“Where is the announcement in the UK that the defence budget is going to rise? Nowhere. What do you think Trump is going to say to Keir Starmer when he goes out to Washington, unless there’s been a clear signal from the UK Government that defence spending is going to rise to probably around 3 per cent as a starter? He’ll just be laughed out of court, frankly.”
Trump has previously said that Nato allies need to spend as much as 5 per cent of their GDP each on defence – significantly more than the US currently spends.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy promised that Britain would be a “bridge” between Europe and the US, and added: “President Trump is right. Successive US presidents have now been saying for generations that Europeans have to do more on their own defence.
“That began with Roosevelt, it was repeated by Obama and others, and we do have to do more and this is a critical moment. It’s existential for Europe to increase, of course, defence spending to step up our commitment to our own defences across Europe.”
But speaking on a trip to Norway, Defence Secretary John Healey hit out at the President’s claim that Zelensky is acting undemocratically by postponing election while Ukraine is still at war with Russia.
He said: “This was a man who, stuck in his country, led his country, and still does. He was elected. He’s the elected leader of Ukraine, and he’s done what Winston Churchill did in Britain in the Second World War, suspended elections while at war. And our job is to stand with the Ukrainians, support the Ukrainians, support them in their fight. And if they choose to talk, support them in the negotiations as well.”
Healey repeated the offer for the UK to help lead a peacekeeping force in Ukraine after any future peace deal, saying: “The one feature of any ceasefire and any peace is that it must not be something that is broken again by Russia re-invading Ukraine.”
A UK Government spokesman said: “National security is a foundation of this Government’s plan for change, which is why we will set out a pathway to spending 2.5 per cent on defence in the spring. In our first budget we increased defence spending by almost £3bn – clearly illustrating our commitment to national security and ensuring we have a military force fit for the future.”
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