The winner of the next election will be forced to make the “hard choices” of deeper spending cuts or tax rises to fund Britain’s defence spending commitments and prepare the country for war, experts have warned.
UK defence spending will reach only 2.7 per cent of GDP by 2029, as set out by Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves in the Defence Investment Plan (DIP) this week.
But this means that whoever wins power at the 2029 election will then need to significantly ramp up defence spending year on year to reach the Nato commitment of 3.5 per cent by 2035.
Shorts
The Institute for Fiscal Studies said getting from 2.7 per cent to 3.5 per cent in six years would require an extra £25bn of annual spending in today’s terms – the equivalent of 3p on income tax.
