Keir Starmer yesterday reiterated his commitment to get defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 – and he said his ‘ambition’ to hit 3% would be reached in the next Parliament
The UK will be forced to promise to hike defence spending to 3.5% of national income within ten years, according to multiple reports.
Keir Starmer yesterday reiterated his commitment to get defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 – and he said he was “100% confident” his “ambition” to hit 3% would be reached in the next Parliament. But he refused to spell out the details of the 3% plan, raising questions over the certainty of the commitment.
But, according to Sky News, the PM will have to further increase the target to keep Donald Trump on board, as well as keeping pace with NATO as it pushes to rearm. The reports also suggested there is confusion at the Ministry of Defence after the PM tied himself in knots over the 3% plan, when in fact he is planning to increase it again soon.
Asked what would happen at a NATO summit later this month, a defence source told Sky News: “3.5% without a doubt.” The Mirror understands the MoD has no response to the 3.5% rumours, with the Government’s official position only set out yesterday.
READ MORE: UK issued ominous warning of ‘enemies at our door’ as PM unveils major defence plan
The news site said Mr Starmer is due to hold talks on an uplift to the defence spending target as soon as today. As well as an increase in pure defence spending of 3.5% by 2035, the PM is also said to be likely forced to commit a further 1.5% of GDP to defence-related areas such as spy agencies and infrastructure.
It would mean the total broader defence spending pot would be 5%.
Mark Rutte, head of NATO and a former Dutch prime minister, said last week he assumes members will agree to a broad defence spending target of 5% of GDP during the summit in The Hague on June 24 and 25.
He said: “I assume that in The Hague we will agree on a high defence spend target of in total, 5%… I will not say what is the individual breakup, but it will be considerably north for 3% when it comes to the hard spending. And it will be also a target on defence related spending. We need this because otherwise we can never, ever, ever reach the capability targets we have to reach.”
Mr Starmer yesterday launched the long-awaited strategic defence review (SDR), which he said would make the UK “safer and stronger, a battle-ready, armour-clad nation” amid Russian threats in the air, at sea and online.
Speaking at a BAE Systems’ shipyard in Govan, in Glasgow, Mr Starmer said the front line “is here” – with threats facing the UK “more serious, more immediate and more unpredictable” than any time since the Cold War.
But questions were raised over how his defence commitments would be funded. Paul Johnson, from the respected IFS think-tank, said: “Bluntly, it really does seem to me that the only choice that is available, if we’re going to go through all of those things, is some really quite chunky tax increases to pay for it.”
Lord Dannatt, former head of the British Army, said that vague commitments to defence spending “does not cut the mustard”. He told Times Radio: “It’s a little bit like saying in 1938 to Adolf Hitler, please don’t attack us till 1946, because we’re not going to be ready. Well, frankly, if we’d behaved like that, we wouldn’t be speaking English this morning, would we?”
READ MORE: Join our Mirror politics WhatsApp group to get the latest updates from Westminster
