11 hours ago
Sideline Starmer! Sir Keir snapped in third row of leaders' photo at Nato summit
Sir Keir Starmer was pushed to the sidelines for a leaders' photo at Tuesday's Nato summit, with the Prime Minister spotted all the way back on the third row.
He cut a lonely figure halfway up the stairs of the Huis ten Bosch Palace in The Hague, Netherlands as the meeting of heads of state kicked off.
Taking centre stage were US president Donald Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, who flanked Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima on the front row ahead of a lavish dinner.
But Sir Keir, meanwhile, looked rather stranded in the background, placed next to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Italy 's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, with the latter standing some distance away from the British representative.
The Prime Minister is hoping to formally agree a defence and security spending pledge of 5 per cent of GDP by 2035 with his fellow leaders at the summit, but he seemed to struggle to find anyone to talk to as various guests chatted among themselves on the palace steps.
The spending commitment is expected to be made up of 3.5 per cent on 'core defence' and another 1.5 per cent on 'resilience and security'.
And Sir Keir insisted that Labour would stick to its pledge not to raise taxes to reach the new defence spending targets.
He said: 'Every time we've set out our defence spending commitments, so when we went to 2.5 per cent in 2027/28, we set out precisely how we would pay for it, that didn't involve tax rises.
'Clearly we've got commitments in our manifesto about not making tax rises on working people and we will stick to our manifesto commitments.'
He said the current commitment to get defence spending up to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2027/8 was not coming at the expense of welfare, but rather from cuts to overseas development aid.
'So, it's a misdescription to suggest that the defence spending commitment we've made is at the expense of money on welfare,' Sir Keir added.
At a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the Prime Minister underscored that national security is the 'first duty' of Government.
His trip comes as the Government publishes its national security strategy, setting out plans to make the UK 'more resilient to future threats'.
Downing Street has described the 5 per cent goal as 'a projected target' that allies will review in 2029 when Nato carries out its next capability assessment.
It is a significant jump from the current 2 per cent target in the group, and from the UK Government's aim of spending 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence from 2027 and 3 per cent at some point after the next election.
But the figure is in line with the demands of President Trump, who has called for Nato allies to shoulder more of the burden of European defence.
The Prime Minister is hoping to formally agree a defence and security spending pledge of 5 per cent of GDP by 2035 with his fellow leaders at the summit
The Government expects to spend 1.5 per cent of GDP on resilience and security by 2027.
The details of what counts towards that target are 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.
And increasing core defence spending to 3.5 per cent will not happen until 2035, with at least two elections likely to take place before then.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) estimates that an increase in core spending from 2.6 per cent to 3.5 per cent would cost an additional £30 billion a year.
It noted, however, that the plans concern spending far in the future and therefore may not affect the Government's spending review or autumn budget decisions.
Spending 3.5 per cent of national income on defence is 'certainly not unprecedented' but much more is now spent on health than in the past, IFS researcher Bee Boileau said.
Shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel said the Government had not been clear enough about how it would reach the defence spending goal, claiming ministers had only offered 'smoke and mirrors'.
She added: 'So, when will he actually deliver a plan to get to 2 per cent, and why won't he heed our calls to hit 3 per cent by the end of this Parliament, which would be vital, and a vital stepping stone on the way to that higher defence spending that he is seeking.'
The Nato gathering comes amid the backdrop of escalating Middle East tensions and the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Sir Keir has urged Israel and Iran to get back to the fragile ceasefire brokered by President Trump.
Mr Trump told reporters on the way to the Netherlands that it would depend 'on your definition' when asked if he would commit to Nato's Article 5, which requires members to defend each other from attack.
Ukrainian President Zelensky is also at the summit, but did not take part in the main discussions of the North Atlantic Council.
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'.
But it was reported on Sunday that Spain had reached a deal that would see it exempted from the 5 per cent target.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that Spain would be able to keep its commitments to the 32-nation military alliance by spending 2.1 per cent of GDP on defence needs.
