Outgoing UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer released his Defense Investment Plan this morning, something he was apparently determined to–despite months of delays–ahead of Andy Burnham taking over as prime minister. The DIP will raise defense spending by £15bn, which, The Telegraph notes, falls well short of the £18bn to £28bn range that defence experts and military chiefs had called for.
“We are already delivering the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the 1980s, £270bn over the spending review period,” Starmer said. “And I can announce today that under the defence investment plan we are increasing this by an extra £15bn, setting a new record of spending almost £300bn over the next four years to back our Armed Forces and to strengthen our national security. Now it’s true to say there’s been a huge focus on the numbers here... Before we came into office, so two years ago, this country spent £54bn a year on defence. We are taking this to almost £80bn a year by 2029. “That is a real-terms increase of 27 per cent, from spending 2.3 per cent of GDP on defence in 2024, we are raising it to 2.7 per cent, putting us on a trajectory to reach 3 per cent in the next Parliament, which must be the number one priority for the next spending review.”
Starmer insisted: “We can’t just spend more, we’ve got to spend better. That includes driving real reforms in the Ministry of Defence to get real investment from our procurement.”