The chair of the Defence Committee has said the Prime Minister will arrive at this week’s NATO summit in Ankara empty-handed, telling the Commons that the government has not set out a clear path to spending 3 per cent of GDP on defence, let alone the 3.5 per cent NATO target.
Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, the Labour MP for Slough who chairs the committee, put the criticism directly to Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis at defence questions on Monday. “With the defence investment plan finally being published, I had hoped that as we head to the NATO summit in Ankara this week, the Government would have set out a clear path to 3.5 per cent, but unfortunately, the Prime Minister will be arriving empty-handed, because we have not even set out a clear path to 3 per cent,” he said.
Citing “the widely reported Russian potential plot to launch an attack on Polish soil, targeting its critical infrastructure,” and the US President’s warning that NATO members must increase investment or face the consequences, Dhesi asked whether the Prime Minister would reassure allies at Ankara by setting out a clear pathway to 3.5 per cent.
Jarvis did not offer one, pointing instead to the next spending review. “He will have heard my words the other day on the importance of ensuring that defence is the No. 1 spending priority at the next spending review. That is the moment at which we will need to set out a clear trajectory to honouring our commitment to spending 3.5 per cent of GDP by 2035,” the Defence Secretary said, adding that allies expect the UK to lead and to step up, “and that is what we will do.”
The exchange sharpens a question that has followed the Defence Investment Plan since its publication last week. The plan commits to defence spending of 2.7 per cent of GDP by 2029-30, rising to 4.2 per cent on NATO’s broader measure including wider security spending, with the government stating it will reach 3 per cent in the next parliament and 3.5 per cent by 2035, but the funding and profile for both are deferred to the next spending review, expected in 2027, at which the Treasury has committed that defence will be the number one priority.
This government is allergic to spending on the armed forces.