Keir Starmer pledged to slash aid spending to boost defence today as he braces for a crucial trip to meet Donald Trump and try to repair Western ties.
In a dramatic Commons statement, the PM finally laid out a trajectory for boosting the military amid rising alarm about America withdrawing support.
Sir Keir warned of rising ‘instability’ saying leaders ‘must stand by Ukraine’ and face down the ‘menace’ of Vladimir Putin. Pointing to the Salisbury poison attack, he insisted the Russian dictator would only respond to ‘strength’.
The premier said the UK will be pumping 2.5 per cent of GDP into defence by 2027, describing it as the ‘biggest sustained increase since the end of the Cold War’. The figure will rise to 3 per cent ‘in the next Parliament’, he added.
But he acknowledged that the only way to fund that was cutting the foreign aid budget – saying that will fall from 0.5 per cent to 0.3 per cent.
Although Sir Keir claimed that would mean a ratchet of £13.4billion a year from 2027, in fact it is more like £6billion in real terms.
But the move was welcomed by the Trump administration, with defense secretary Pete Hegseth saying it was ‘a strong step from an enduring partner’.
The comments come after huge pressure – including from a Mail campaign – to invest in the UK’s defences.
The move could also provide Sir Keir a warmer welcome at the White House, where many MPs fear he is facing mission impossible.
The premier said the US is our ‘most important bilateral alliance’ and rejected the idea the UK would have to ‘choose’ between allies.
‘I will be clear, I want this relationship to go from strength to strength,’ he said.
However, Mr Trump has argued that European states should be spending 5 per cent of GDP on defence – far more than the US does. And critics immediate said the boost will not be enough, warning that Sir Keir will be ‘eaten alive’ by the US president.
Former defence secretary Ben Wallace said it was a ‘staggering desertion of leadership’.
‘Tone deaf to dangers of the world and demands of the United States. Such a weak commitment to our security and Nation puts us all at risk,’ he said.
Aid charities also vented fury at the cut, with Labour former Cabinet minister David Miliband saying it was a ‘blow to Britain’s proud reputation as a global humanitarian and development leader’.
Sir Keir is holding a press conference in Downing Street at 5pm, as the government unveils a new slogan of ‘secure at home, strong abroad’.
In the latest rollercoaster developments:
Kemi Badenoch tore into Donald Trump’s efforts to secure peace in Ukraine, warning the US president’s plan would simply ‘reward’ Vladimir Putin for his bloody invasion.
In a hard-hitting foreign policy speech the Tory leader warned that the era of ‘Pax Americana’ – world peace underwritten by the US – was ‘evolving, potentially even ending’.
She criticised the president for calling Ukraine’s president Zelensky a ‘dictator’, saying Putin was a dictator and she would be happy to tell Trump this to his face.
And she said that it was ‘absolutely critical’ Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s visit to the White House later this week succeed in moving Trump away from aligning with the Kremlin.
Speaking at the Policy Exchange think tank, she said: ‘An end to the war is being negotiated while a fifth of Ukrainian territory is under enemy occupation.
‘The danger is that aggression does not merely go unpunished, but ends up rewarded.
‘Russia and other authoritarian regimes will be emboldened, if that is how this war ends.’
Sir Keir told MPs: ‘We must find courage in our history, courage in who we are as a nation, because courage is what our own era now demands of us.
‘So starting today, I can announce this Government will begin the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War. We will deliver our commitment to spend 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence, but we will bring it forward so that we reach that level in 2027, and we will maintain that for the rest of this Parliament.
‘And let me spell it out, that means spending £13.4billion more on defence every year from 2027.’
Funding for intelligence and security services will bring total defence spending to 2.6 per cent of GDP from 2027, Sir Keir said, as he cautioned that enemies ‘are sophisticated in cyberattacks, sabotage, even assassination’.
‘I’ve long argued that in the face of ongoing generational challenges, all European allies must step up and do more for our own defence, so subject to economic and fiscal conditions, and aligned with our strategic and operational needs, we will also set a clear ambition for defence spending to rise to 3 per cent of GDP in the next parliament.
‘I want to be very clear, the nature of warfare has changed significantly. That is clear from the battlefield in Ukraine, and so we must modernise and reform our capabilities as we invest.’
Admitting it was not an announcement he wanted to make, Sir Keir told the Commons: ‘In the short term, it can only be funded through hard choices, and in this case, that means we will cut our spending on development assistance, moving from 0.5 per cent of GNI (gross national income) today, to 0.3 per cent in 2027, fully funding our increased investment in defence.’
He added: ‘We must change our national security posture, because a generational challenge requires a generational response, that will demand some extremely difficult and painful choices.
‘And through those choices, as hard as they are, we must also seek unity, a whole society effort that will reach into the lives, the industries, and the homes of the British people.’
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch backed the cut in aid to fund defence and urged Sir Keir to take up her suggestion of also raiding the welfare budget to boost spending on the military.
‘I’m very pleased to hear the Prime Minister announce that increase to 2.5 per cent by 2027. All of us on this side of the House welcome that, we have all wanted to see more spending on defence,’ she said.
Former Royal Navy commander and aircraft carrier captain Tom Sharpe said: ‘In the current fiscal climate it seems churlish to knock any increase.
‘Having said that, it’s not enough. It will continue to strain our existing forces (bad) while placing ever more emphasis on ensuring the money we do have is spent well (good).
‘Declaring it two days before meeting your key ally who will certainly object to lack of ambition is interesting timing as well.’
Ex-Army intelligence officer Philip Ingram said: ‘It is too little, too late. He needed to say 2.5 immediately with the current Strategic Defence Review looking at 3 to 5 per cent if necessary and identifying a realistic timeframe while working with other departments to identify where funding can be found.
‘Otherwise, it is a pathetic sap to try to placate Trump who will eat him alive on Thursday.’
IFS assistant director Ben Zaranko warned that pushing defence spending towards 3 per cent would require cuts elsewhere or tax rises.
‘If defence spending needs to go higher than 2.5 per cent of GDP, cuts to aid won’t be enough,’ he said.
‘Getting towards 3 per cent of GDP will eventually mean more tough choices and sacrifices elsewhere – whether higher taxes, or cuts to other bits of government.
‘The world has changed, and one question is whether the government’s pre-existing promises on tax and spend might need to change as well.’
The think-tank researcher also highlighted that Sir Keir had used a ‘misleadingly large’ figure for the increase – by assuming that the budget would be frozen in cash terms otherwise. That would effectively be a reduction in real terms.
European alarm has been mounting over the US direction since Mr Trump’s bombshell phone conversation with Vladimir Putin, unilaterally opening peace talks without involving Ukraine.
The US president has branded Volodymyr Zelensky a ‘dictator’, even elections have only been suspended while Russia occupies around a fifth of the country.
Last night the US joined Russia in voting against a European-drafted UN resolution supporting Ukraine’s territorial integrity and condemning Moscow’s aggression. It was passed by the General Assembly (UNGA).
A US-drafted resolution at the UN Security Council was then supported by Russia and China, as it backed an end to the conflict but did not include any criticism of Moscow.
The UK and France abstained after attempts to amend the wording were vetoed.
Britain’s UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward warned the council: ‘If Russia is allowed to win, we will live in a world where might is right, where borders can be redrawn by force, where aggressors think they can act with impunity.’
Denmark’s deputy foreign minister Lotte Machon stressed peace negotiations should involve ‘nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine, nothing about European security without Europe’.
The UK marked the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion yesterday by unveiling new sanctions packages.
The Foreign Office announced 107 new designations that include 40 ‘shadow fleet’ ships and 14 ‘new kleptocrats’, including Russian billionaire Roman Trotsenko, as part of the largest sanctions package since 2022.
North Korean officials involved in sending troops to fight for Russia, Kyrgyz bank OJSC Keremet and companies in China, Turkey and India that supply tools and goods to Russia’s military, were also listed.
Boris Johnson sounded optimism about progress on a minerals deal this morning, saying the US will only benefit when there is a ‘free, sovereign and secure Ukraine’.
The former PM told LBC that Ukrainians had ‘kept their cool’ and ‘negotiated very hard’ with US President Donald Trump after initially rejecting a deal that led to an ‘awful ratcheting up of the rhetoric against Ukraine’.
‘I’ve obviously seen some drafts. I’ve seen the latest one today. It contains some very good commitments by the US to the freedom, sovereignty and security of Ukraine … It commits the fund that the Ukraine and the US will set up to long-term investment in the security of Ukraine. There’s good stuff in it.’
He suggested the US would not benefit from the deal unless lasting peace in Ukraine was secured.
‘There’s no way America is going to get its hands on any proceeds from Ukrainian minerals until there is a free, sovereign and secure Ukraine. That is a massive, massive prize, and I think, worth going for.’
The deal is about Mr Trump needing to show ‘the wackos who seem to support Putin … that he’s got something in exchange for American support and long term American support for Ukraine’.