The UK remains committed to meeting NATO’s new defence spending benchmark of 5% of GDP by 2035, with defence spending set to rise to 3% in the next Parliament.
During Defence questions in the House of Commons, Defence Secretary John Healey confirmed that the UK had joined all other NATO allies in agreeing the new 5% benchmark earlier this year. He said the decision followed what he described as the “largest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the cold war.”
Pressed by Conservative MPs Greg Smith and Peter Fortune for specific timelines, Healey said the government has already added “an extra £5 billion in the first year” and that defence spending will reach “2.6% by 2027”, earlier than previously expected. He added: “We have an ambition for 3% in the next Parliament.”
Smith criticised the lack of detailed defence spending projections in the Budget documents, contrasting this with what he described as extensive analysis of welfare spending. He asked Healey to state “clearly at the Dispatch Box” when the UK would reach both 3% and 5% of GDP on defence. Fortune echoed the concern, saying Healey was “eloquent” but not “exact” on dates.
Healey declined to give a specific financial year for reaching 3%, reiterating instead that it would happen in the next Parliament. He used the exchange to criticise previous Conservative governments, saying they had “14 years to raise defence spending” and left it at a level that Labour now has to rebuild. He said the government is raising spending back to “2.5%—the level it was at in 2010” before moving higher.
Labour MPs supported the government’s approach, with Derek Twigg urging faster increases in light of threats from Russia and other adversaries. Healey responded that the government is already accelerating defence investment, citing the Strategic Defence Review, Defence Industrial Strategy and increased spending on military housing as evidence of what he described as a “landmark shift” towards being more warfighting-ready.
Questions were also raised about resilience and civil preparedness spending under NATO’s Article 3 obligations. Healey said total defence spending would rise from “just under £54 billion” in the final year of the previous government to “over £65 billion” this year and next, arguing that this demonstrated both commitment and momentum.
So they can just keep saying that till they lose the next election then.
Job done. The last lot did exactly the same.
The next parliament. So potentially 2029 before anythin happens and if this crowd should win it could be 2034 before three per cent. As for the so called increase in spending the first year was planned by the Tories and the second year increase has been spent on what? I haven’t seen anything.
The jump from £54 billion to £65 billion sounds dramatic, but how much of that is simply accounting changes — bringing intelligence and wider NATO-qualifying security spending into the headline figure?
Where is the genuine uplift for front-line forces and equipment?
One of those free declarations that are easy to say but with no consequences when they don’t.
And this “defence” % needs to change and what % is directly military spend be made public, everyone knows other items are placed into “Defence” to reach a set percentage.
You could spend 3% on Defence, which will include a list as long as your arm and still have a tiny military stretched to the limit.
Is the 3% not determined according to current NATO standards?
Without the defence industrial plan, this is just waffle.
We urgently need to fix what we have- T45, Astute, Ajax- and try to accelerate T26 and T31 delivery.
Agree Ajax is a significant issue, but there is some encouraging news. NLO article on recruitment is worth a read. “ Four of the six Type 45 now have complete crews (HMS Dauntless, Dragon, Duncan and Daring). Meanwhile in the shipyards, the ship’s companies of HMS Venturer, HMS Glasgow and HMS Cardiff are building up.”