𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Labour has been slammed after it emerged UK military spending is set to account for a smaller share of GDP in 2027-28 than estimated last year. It comes amid growing pressure on the Government to boost defence spending, with three former defence secretaries, retired senior military chiefs and an ex-MI6 boss calling on Sir Keir Starmer to loosen the purse strings for the Armed Forces.

They called for defence spending to reach 5% of our national income — considerably more than the current amount. A new Ministry of Defence (MoD) forecast expects “core” defence spending to be some 2.13% of GDP in 2027-28, reports say. This is a decrease from 2.2% projected in September.

According to the Financial Times, the changes reflect fluctuations in estimates of the size of the UK economy in two years’ time, rather than amendments to the Government’s budget for defence.

The figures were revealed by defence minister Luke Pollard in response to questions from Shadow Defence Secretary James Cartlidge.

The senior Tory told the FT that the changed forecast underlines the “gaping chasm between Labour’s defence spending rhetoric and reality”.

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He urged Sir Keir to take “the difficult decisions to properly fund defence” and agree to spending 3% of national income on defence this parliament.

The prime minister, who has declared this as a target for after the next election, last week said Britain must “go faster” on its defence spending.

It followed reports he was considering bringing forward the 3% “ambition” to this parliament, however Downing Street sources later denied this.

Pressure on the Government to ramp up defence spending has grown amid rising tensions with Russia and US demands for its European allies to step up.

Other nations in NATO have responded, in particular the Baltic states and Poland — Warsaw is set to spend 5% by the end of 2026.

Figures from NATO show the UK was the alliance’s 12th biggest spender on overall defence proportionality in 2025 after previously being third in 2021.

Ed Arnold, a senior research fellow at the defence and security think tank RUSI, told the FT: “The UK falling further down the NATO GDP defence metric will alarm allies who are moving in the opposite direction under the same financial pressures.”

An MoD spokesperson said the Government was “delivering the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the cold war, with over £270bn being invested in this parliament”.