Britain 'to commit to spending 3.5 per cent of GDP on defence' within the next decade as NATO hike targets
3 June 2025, 12:56 | Updated: 3 June 2025, 19:10
Britain will be forced to commit to spending 3.5 per cent of GDP on defence within the next decade as NATO hike their targets next month, LBC's been told.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Insiders believe that Britain will be forced to sign up to a new target when leaders including Donald Trump and other allies meet at the Hague next month.
The next NATO summit is set to raise the group's target from 2 per cent - which Britain has long spent - in a bid to appease the US President.
Senior defence sources expect the prime minister to agree to the target at the summit.
It comes after the government's defence review was released yesterday, which is based on reaching 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence by 2027.
At present Britain spends 2.3 per cent on defence.
Sir Keir Starmer has said that will rise to 3 per cent in the next parliament, when the "economic conditions allow" - but hasn't set a date.
He told the BBC earlier this week he wouldn't agree to "performative fantasy politics" and pluck a date out of thin air.
Any rise in spending will mean billions of pounds extra has to be found - with the Chancellor already facing financial pressures ahead of the spending review next week.
Defence Secretary John Healey told The Times at the weekend that the government would 3 per cent it as a certainty.
However, on Sunday he backtracked on the remarks, clarifying that it was still an “ambition” for the government.
Read more: The West is coming apart - Britain’s defence review ignores the real crisis
Sir Ben Wallace reacts to the Prime Minister's defence review
The PM was grilled yesterday on whether the UK would back a new target from NATO.
He said: "Our commitment to NATO is huge, in terms of the contribution we already make.
"We commit our nuclear capability and other capability. We have a NATO first approach.
"Of course, there are discussions about what the contribution should be going into the NATO conference in two or three weeks' time.
"That's a vital conversation we do need to have, and we are right at the heart of it."
"But it is much more about what sort of NATO will be capable of being, as it has been over the past 80 years."
Downing Street said this lunchtime: "The strategic defence review set out a plan to meet the threats we face and continue to lead in NATO.
"The PM yesterday said we are a leading member of NATO, we commit our capability to allies, the review puts NATO at the heart of our approach to defence.
"He said we would of course be working with allies in the run up to the NATO summit.
"You've seen our commitment to NATO in the strategic defence review.
"We are already the third highest spender in NATO, in cash terms.
"There will always be discussions about the contribution going into NATO."
Former Bank of England chief economist, Andy Haldane, told LBC yesterday that Britain now looks like "a laggard on defence spend compared to the rest of the world".
He says Reeves can have the money to spend more but that "requires her to loosen her self imposed fiscal chains, we'll need to see some tax rises by the end of the year... a bit more borrowing, a bit more taxation... to step up to the plate on defence and beyond".
Former head of the diplomatic service Lord Simon McDonald stressed to LBC's Andrew Marr that NATO couldn't force the UK to do anything, but warned that more budget cuts were on the horizon to free up more funds for security.
"The first duty of a government is the security of the country,' he said.
"So I expect this to be the priority and for painful cuts to be made elsewhere to make this happen.
"It's politically very tough, especially for a Labour Prime Minister, a Labour Chancellor, but the signals very consistently are, despite that toughness, this will happen."
Defence Secretary John Healey says a new era for UK defence is needed
