Outgoing UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer released his Defense Investment Plan (DIP) this morning, something he was apparently determined to do—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 for which defense experts and military chiefs had called.
“We are already delivering the biggest sustained increase in defense spending since the 1980s, £270 billion over the spending review period,” said Starmer. “And I can announce today that under the defense investment plan, we are increasing this by an extra £15 billion, setting a new record of spending almost £300 billion 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 £54 billion a year on defence. We are taking this to almost £80 billion a year by 2029. “That is a real-terms increase of 27 percent, from spending 2.3 percent of GDP on defense in 2024, we are raising it to 2.7 percent, putting us on a trajectory to reach 3 percent 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.”
