Before Prime Minister Keir Starmer meets him at the White House on Thursday, Britain on Tuesday announced a landmark raise in military spending.
Starmer said Britain would raise its military spending to 2.5 % of economic output by 2027, and to 3 % during the next govt’s term, which would mean by 2034 at the latest. He claimed that by cutting back on spending on foreign development aid by 40 %, Britain would cover the enormous new costs. The Labour government had already agreed to increase spending from the current 2.3 % to 2.5 % of GDP, but it had not specified a deadline for doing so. The move would amount to an increase in expenditure of £13.4 billion ($ 17 billion ) a year on defence between now and 2027.
In a speech to Parliament, Starmer said,” We must shift our national security posture because a generational problem calls for a generational answer.” Starmer expressed regret over the government’s decision to reduce overseas development aid from 0.5 % of GDP to 0.3 %, adding that he regretted the reduction. The Prime Minister said,” The American people’s security and defense has always come first in such a time.”
The govt’s support reduction, which came on top of a past split under a Liberal PM, Boris Johnson, in 2020, echoes the Trump administration’s radical retreat fromforeign support. Starmer, however, made his decision as a temporary measure because the tough new security environment required it.
