UK will be FORCED to ramp up defence spending after Keir refused to commit to funding despite ‘battle ready’ promise
BRITAIN will be steamrollered into ramping up defence spending when Nato allies agree to a target of 3.5 per cent of GDP at a summit later this month.
Labour’s pledge to “lead in Nato” would be blown to smithereens if Britain is left behind, a top defence insider said.
Top Brass have been baffled by Kier Starmer’s refusal to say when he will hit Labour's target of spending 3 per cent.
The PM vowed to get Britain "battle ready" yesterday with new doomsday nukes and robotic fighter jets – but refused to say how he will fund it.
Donald Trump has demanded allies spend 5 per cent of GDP on defence – and he has threatened to abandon nations that fail to pay their way.
Nato’s chief Mark Rutte has successfully lobbied allies to try and hit Trump's target by spending 3.5 per cent on core defence – including troops, tanks and ships – and 1.5 per cent on security and infrastructure, including spy agencies.
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Strategic Defence Review: Five Key Defence Pledges
- Up to 12 new nuclear-powered submarines to be built under the Aukust pact
- £15bn investment in the UK's nuclear warhead programme to maintain and modernise the deterrent
- New Cyber Command to be established, with £1 billion invested in digital warfare capabilities
- Up to 7,000 UK-built long-range weapons to be purchased, supporting 800 defence jobs
- More than £1.5bn in extra funding to repair and renew armed forces housing
France's President Macron has backed Rutte's demands.
And Germany is already on course to hit the target within the next few years.
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A defence source said Britain's ministers have “been in denial” about the looming Nato summit and pledges key allies will make.
Starmer is expected to discuss the Nato target in a crunch meeting this week.
A defence source said: “Do we want to be lumped with Spain as the only allies that are complaining?”
At the launch a landmark Strategic Defence Review Defence Secretary John Healey said: “Our defence policy is Nato First.
“We will end the hollowing out of our Armed Forces and lead
in a stronger, more lethal Nato.”
Labour has pledged to increase defence spending from 2.3 per cent of GDP to 2.5 per cent by 2027.
Starmer said: “We have set the ambition to reach 3 per cent in the next Parliament, subject to economic and fiscal conditions.”
But pressed on what that meant, he said: “I’m not going to indulge in the fantasy politics of simply plucking dates from the air.”
Defence Secretary Healey said the 3 per cent target was a "certainty
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But he backtracked 24-hours later, insisting it was merely an "ambition".
Britain's three biggest weapons programmes – including the Trident 2 nuclear deterrent, the new sixth generation fighter jets and new hunter killer submarines – will cost at least 3 per cent of GDP, a former defence minister told The Sun.
Strategic error
ON the face of it, there is good news in Labour’s Strategic Defence Review.
Up to 12 submarines to head off threats from Russia at sea.
New weapons and munitions factories to replace those stocks depleted by donations to Ukraine.
But will the billions needed to pay for all these new fighter jets, drones and hi-tech weaponry actually be found?
Defence chiefs say it will take investment of three per cent of GDP. Yet Keir Starmer yesterday refused to put a timeline on achieving that.
By 2027 it will still be only 2.5 per cent — when experts say we need five per cent to re-arm properly.
If the Prime Minister has doubts about where to find the cash, he could try diverting money from less pressing areas — like binning Net Zero and free hotels for migrants.
A pity, too, that his Government is handing Mauritius £30billion on top of surrendering the Chagos Islands.
At the very least, the PM’s uncertainty also throws the delivery time of new projects into doubt.
New subs, for example, already won’t be serviceable until the late 2030s. Sir Keir says the nation is on a war footing as of now.
But it cannot take decades before we are ready to actually fight one.