BELFAST — Outgoing UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced that British defense spending will reach close to £80 billion ($105 billion) annually by 2029.
Ahead of the release of Britain’s long-awaited Defence Investment Plan, due today, Starmer told local media that the lucrative figure will be met before the end of the decade. He failed, however, to disclose a timeline for meeting NATO’s 5 percent spending target.
Following a disagreement over additional spending that had spilled over into the public in recent weeks between Starmer, the UK Treasury and the MoD, the British leader also revealed that a package covering an extra £15 billion to support the DIP, has been approved. The figure is someway short of the MoD’s reported push to secure a total of £28 billion however.
“From spending 2.3 percent of GDP on defense in 2024, we are raising it to 2.7 percent, putting us on a trajectory to reach 3 percent in the next parliament [from 2029], which must be the number one priority of the next spending review,” he explained during a speech on Tuesday at the drone company Malloy Aeronautics’ facility in Berkshire, England.
“I’ve committed to spend 5 percent of GDP on our wider security, covering things like energy security and critical infrastructure, as well as defense. The defense investment plan published today takes us to 4.2 percent under that commitment.”
