Starmer Refuses to Provide a Date for 3% GDP Spending on Defence – Guido Fawkes

LISTEN: Starmer Refuses to Provide a Date for 3% GDP Spending on Defence

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John Healey told papers over the weekend he had “no doubt” that the government would spend 3% on defence by 2034. NATO target: 3.5%

By the Sunday interviews Healey had reversed his line and said it was only an “ambition” to ramp up spending to that level. This morning on the Today Programme – a couple of hours before the Strategic Defence Review is launched – Starmer could not provide a guarantee:

“What I said at the election in 2024 is that we would get to 2.5% and I was pressed time and again ‘what precise date’ and I said ‘as soon as I can be absolutely clear with a firm date, a firm commitment that we will keep to’, because I had seen the previous government make commitments about this percent or that percent with no plan behind it, I’m not going down that road. Therefore, what you can take from this is – yes – that 3% but I am not, as the Prime Minister of a Labour Government, going to make a commitment as to the precise date, until I couldn’t be sure precisely where the money is coming from, how we can make good on that commitment.”

Investment recommendations are predicated on an increase in defence spending. No date = no plan…