Questions over Labour’s 3% defence spending commitment
A minister has again refused to guarantee that the Government will spend 3% of the UK’s economic output on defence in the next Parliament.
Labour frontbencher Luke Pollard said the commitment would be dependent on the state of the ecomomy. It comes after Defence Secretary John Healey yesterday could not confirm that the Treasury would fund the plan to bring spending up to 3% of GDP by 2034.
Asked on Monday morning whether the 3% commitment remained a guarantee, defence minister Luke Pollard told Times Radio: “Well, we’ve set out that we are spending 2.5% by April 2027, with the ambition to spend 3% in the next parliament, when economic conditions allow.”
Pressed about the commitment, Mr Pollard added: “Well I’ve got no doubt that we will get to 3% in the next parliament, as I’ve said a number of times.”
The defence minister said the strategic defence review, a wide-ranging investigation into the UK’s defence being published on Monday, is the “biggest transformation of our armed forces in 100 years”.
He said: “It seeks to learn the lessons from the war in Ukraine, refresh our capabilities, invest in our people, and underscore that increased defence spending up to 2.5% of our GDP by April 2027 is an engine for growth.”