Exclusive
Starmer ‘needs to get ballsy on defence spending’, former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt tells LBC
5 June 2025, 23:09 | Updated: 6 June 2025, 00:38
Former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has told LBC that Starmer should show more 'ballsiness' on defence spending, ahead of a crunch NATO summit.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
The upcoming summit will see NATO call on the UK to spend 5% of GDP on defence.
General Secretary Mark Rutte is pushing for members to commit to spending 3.5% on the military, with a further 1.5% on defence-related measures.
US president Donald Trump has consistently been pushing for NATO members to spend increase their defence spending to 5% of GDP.
Jeremy Hunt has now told LBC's Iain Dale that Trump is "bang to rights", and that there's a risk he could pull the US out of NATO, which would mean even higher defence spending.
Read more: Reform chairman Zia Yusuf quits after 'burqa ban' row
"The big risk you have with someone who's prepared to take America out of the WTO, the World Health Organisation, the Paris Climate Agreement, is if he says 'actually, I'm done with NATO, I want to focus on China. Thank you very much,'" he said.
He added: "And you know, I'll tell you, we wouldn't be arguing about 2.5% or 3% of GDP if that was the case. It would be whether we spend 5% or 8% of GDP.
"And so I think Keir Starmer is right to be very cautious about not inflaming Trump. But, you know, this is where I wish he would show a bit more ballsiness, frankly."
The commitment of 5% dwarfs Sir Keir's current defence plans, through which the UK would spend 2.5% of GDP by 2027, with an "ambition" to raise this to 3% in the next parliament, a period which could stretch to 2034.
However, he and the Defence Secretary have already come under pressure to explain how the 3% target could be met.
Questions have also been raised about the timing of the Government's defence review, which announced these targets. It was released on Monday - just a day before NATO said it expects members to pay significantly more.
Sir Jeremy said the government is "running away from what is admittedly a very difficult decision," and that the UK should be more assertive ahead of the summit.
"You know, on defence, we're the biggest military power in Europe. Where Britain leads, others follow," he said.
"If [Starmer] said, 'I'm going to spend 3% of GDP on defence and I'm going to put the money aside for it', France and Germany would follow and we would basically solve this problem.
"But this cautiousness is meaning that we are heading for a showdown at the moment in this NATO summit, which is fraught with danger."
Watch Again: Sir Jeremy Hunt takes your calls with Iain Dale
He added: "That is, you know, there's a moment where Britain can show a bit of global leadership and sort out these problems."
While many questions have been raised about how the potential move could be funded, Hunt, who also served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, said there was a 'straightforward answer'.
"There's the only way, actually, that you can really afford this, and that is by doing something would actually be very good for the economy as well, which is welfare reform.
"If we got the welfare bill down to the levels. It was just five years ago, in 2019, before the pandemic for working age adults, that saves just under 50 billion quid a year. Something's gone very badly wrong. It's costing about 11% of GDP when you include pensions.
"And, you know, we're paying people not to work and we need to get people back into work. It's good for the economy. It's also good for the individuals involved."
The NATO chief and former Dutch PM Mark Rutte will visit the UK on Monday, ahead of the summit in The Hague.
As well as his talks with Sir Keir, Rutte will visit Sheffield Forgemasters with Defence Secretary John Healey, and give a speech at Chatham House.
"The two leaders have spoken a number of times and this will be the second time that Mr Rutte has visited the Prime Minister at Downing Street," the Prime Minister's official spokesman said on Thursday.
"You can expect the Prime Minister to raise how we can ensure all allies meet their stated pledges in support of our collective defence, to keep people safe," the spokesman later added.
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Mr Rutte said: "The expectation is that on the European side of Nato and the Canadian side of Nato, if we think that we can keep ourselves safe sticking with the 2%, forget it.
"Yes, the next three to five years, but then we are in great difficulty.
"And the US rightly expects us to spend much more to defend ourselves with their help, but also to equalise, which is only fair with what the US is spending on defence."
