UK set to commit to boost defence spending to 5% of GDP by 2035
The UK will increase spending on defence and security to 5% of GDP by 2035, the Prime Minister is set to announce at a meeting of Nato leaders.
The target, expected to be formally agreed by the 32-nation military alliance at a summit in The Hague this week, includes spending 3.5% on 'core defence' and another 1.5% on 'resilience and security'.
It represents a significant jump from the current 2% Nato target, and from the UK Government's aim of spending 2.5% of GDP on defence from 2027 and 3% at some point after the next election.
But the figure is in line with the demands of US President Donald Trump, who has called for Nato allies to shoulder more of the burden of European defence.
Ahead of his trip to the Netherlands, Starmer said the increased spending target was 'an opportunity to deepen our commitment to Nato and drive greater investment in the nation's wider security and resilience'.
He said: 'We must navigate this era of radical uncertainty with agility, speed and a clear-eyed sense of the national interest to deliver security for working people and keep them safe.'
The Government expects to spend 1.5% of GDP on resilience and security by 2027. The details of what counts towards that target are due to be set out during this week's summit, but it is likely to include spending on energy and border security as well as intelligence agencies.
But increasing core defence spending to 3.5% will not happen until 2035, with at least two elections likely to take place before then.
Nor would Downing Street say how the increase would be paid for, with a spokesman describing the figure as 'a projected target' that allies would review in 2029 when Nato carries out its next capability assessment.
The Royal United Services Institute has estimated that increasing core defence spending to 3.5% by 2035 would cost £40 billion a year more than keeping the figure at 2.5%.
Conservative shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge said the Tories welcomed the higher Nato target, but said the Government's commitment was 'both unfunded and a decade away, when the threat we face is real and imminent.'
Sir Keir's announcement came as the Prime Minister prepared to fly to the Netherlands for the two-day Nato summit against the background of both the war in Ukraine and escalating hostilities in the Middle East.
Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte described the move to spend more on defence as a 'quantum leap' that would make the organisation 'a stronger, a fairer and a more lethal alliance."
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