UK Labour prime minister Keir Starmer prepared for this week’s NATO summit by pledging to raise British defence spending to be the equivalent of 5% of GDP. This 2035 target is in line with the more militaristic sounding, less debt-averse members of the alliance, but at a slower pace than the proposals coming out of states such as Poland and, more recently, Germany.
Of the funds pledged, 3.5% would go on ‘hard’ defence (‘boots on the ground’), with the balance devoted to broader security initiatives, including border control and cyber warfare.
While Starmer’s verbiage aligns with his government’s overall spending plans, critics view them as being uncosted. Unlike Germany—whose chancellor welcomes such expenditure as an opportunity to rejuvenate a flagging economy—the British PM is calling on all citizens to prepare to withstand a “backdrop of global volatility.”
According to Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice
Increased defence spending is always welcome, but this is a hollow and unfunded promise made by a government more interested in securing headlines than delivering.
The PM has now gone almost two weeks without facing the Commons, either at Prime Minister’s Question Time (‘PMQs’) or by being available within the parliamentary estate, adding ‘Never Here Keir’ to his array of existing nicknames, including Free Gear Keir and Starmer the Farmer Harmer.
