UK to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP - meaning tens of billions of pounds of extra funding
23 April 2024, 11:47 | Updated: 23 April 2024, 15:21
The UK will increase defence spending to 2.5% of national income by 2030 and put its arms industry on a "war-footing", the prime minister has said.
The rise is less ambitious than some insiders say is needed - but it will mean tens of billions of additional pounds for the armed forces over the next six years.
The defence budget will increase immediately and and rise to reach £87bn by the end of the decade.
Rishi Sunak had previously said any extra investment would only happen when economic conditions allow. That caveat has been removed.
In a speech in Poland he said the plan: "Delivers an additional £75 billion for defence by the end of the decade and secures our place as by far the largest defence power in Europe.
"Today is a turning point for European security and a landmark moment in the defence of the United Kingdom," he added.
The UK move comes at a time of escalating threats to global security posed by Russia's war in Ukraine, conflict in the Middle East and an ever-more assertive China.
The "world is less safe than it has been in decades", the prime minister said, speaking earlier in the day on a trip to Poland, where he also revealed a new package of weapons, ammunition and £500m in funds for the Ukrainian armed forces.
The UK currently spends just over 2% of GDP on defence, but it has recently started to include the money used to support Ukraine against Russia's full-scale invasion to boost - critics say artificially - this figure.
The expectation is that the plan for a rise in defence spending over the next six years would only be dedicated to the core Ministry of Defence budget - amounting to a total of tens of billions of pounds of additional money in total.
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Defence insiders have long warned that new investment is urgently required to fill yawning gaps in capability across the army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force after decades of cost-saving cuts made by successive governments since the end of the Cold War.
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There is also a need to revamp the ability to defend the homeland.
Sky News revealed earlier this month that the UK also has no plan for its own defences in the event of a war.
Officials have started to work on a cross-government "national defence plan".
But any shift back to a Cold War-style, ready-for-war-footing would require political leaders to make defence a genuinely national effort once again - rather than something that is just delivered by the armed forces.
(c) Sky News 2024: UK to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP - meaning tens of billions of pounds of extra funding
