BRITAIN will be steamrollered into ramping up defence spending when Nato allies agree to a target of 3.5 per cent of GDP at a summit later this month.
Labour’s pledge to “lead in Nato” would be blown to smithereens if Britain is left behind, a top defence insider said.
PASir Keir Starmer vowed to get Britain ‘battle ready’[/caption]
GettyStarmer will discuss the NATO target this week[/caption]
ReutersDonald Trump has demanded allies spend 5 per cent of GDP on defence[/caption]
Top Brass have been baffled by Kier Starmer’s refusal to say when he will hit Labour’s target of spending 3 per cent.
The PM vowed to get Britain “battle ready” yesterday with new doomsday nukes and robotic fighter jets – but refused to say how he will fund it.
Donald Trump has demanded allies spend 5 per cent of GDP on defence – and he has threatened to abandon nations that fail to pay their way.
Nato’s chief Mark Rutte has successfully lobbied allies to try and hit Trump’s target by spending 3.5 per cent on core defence – including troops, tanks and ships – and 1.5 per cent on security and infrastructure, including spy agencies.
France‘s President Macron has backed Rutte’s demands.
And Germany is already on course to hit the target within the next few years.
A defence source said Britain’s ministers have “been in denial” about the looming Nato summit and pledges key allies will make.
Starmer is expected to discuss the Nato target in a crunch meeting this week.
A defence source said: “Do we want to be lumped with Spain as the only allies that are complaining?”
At the launch a landmark Strategic Defence Review Defence Secretary John Healey said: “Our defence policy is Nato First.
“We will end the hollowing out of our Armed Forces and lead
in a stronger, more lethal Nato.”
Labour has pledged to increase defence spending from 2.3 per cent of GDP to 2.5 per cent by 2027.
Starmer said: “We have set the ambition to reach 3 per cent in the next Parliament, subject to economic and fiscal conditions.”
But pressed on what that meant, he said: “I’m not going to indulge in the fantasy politics of simply plucking dates from the air.”
Strategic error
ON the face of it, there is good news in
Labour’s Strategic Defence Review.
Up to 12 submarines to head off
threats from Russia at sea.
New weapons and munitions factories
to replace those stocks depleted by
donations to Ukraine.
But will the billions needed to pay for
all these new fighter jets, drones and
hi-tech weaponry actually be found?
Defence chiefs say it will take
investment of three per cent of GDP.
Yet Keir Starmer yesterday refused to
put a timeline on achieving that.
By 2027 it will still be only 2.5 per cent
— when experts say we need five per
cent to re-arm properly.
If the Prime Minister has doubts about
where to find the cash, he could try
diverting money from less pressing
areas — like binning Net Zero and free
hotels for migrants.
A pity, too, that his Government is
handing Mauritius £30billion on top of
surrendering the Chagos Islands.
At the very least, the PM’s uncertainty
also throws the delivery time of new
projects into doubt.
New subs, for example, already won’t
be serviceable until the late 2030s.
Sir Keir says the nation is on a war
footing as of now.
But it cannot take decades before we are
ready to actually fight one.
Defence Secretary Healey said the 3 per cent target was a “certainty
But he backtracked 24-hours later, insisting it was merely an “ambition”.
Britain’s three biggest weapons programmes – including the Trident 2 nuclear deterrent, the new sixth generation fighter jets and new hunter killer submarines – will cost at least 3 per cent of GDP, a former defence minister told The Sun.
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