Defence spending increase "fairly modest" - warfare expert
The Prime Minister's announced an increase to 2.5% of GDP by 2027
Last updated 25th Feb 2025
A planned increase in defence spending is "actually fairly modest," a warfare expert has said, after the Prime Minister committed to spending 2.5% of GDP by 2027.
Sir Keir Starmer told the House of Commons an increase to three percent would be set out during the next Parliament, with the aid budget cut in response.
Sir Keir said "extremely difficult and painful choices" will have to be made, as an extra £13.4billion will be spent every year from 2027.
Dr Chris Morris, a warfare expert at the University of Portsmouth, has told Northsound 1 the increases will "help plug the gaps."
He added: "By 2027, we might be in a position where we can actually deploy the forces that we have on paper at the moment.
"In terms of actually preparing us for the dangerous decade we're moving into, it's actually fairly modest.
"We are heading into an increasingly difficult time period. Over basically 30 years of neglect, capabilities have kind of lapses. All kinds of strange gaps have appeared in our force structure, and simply plugging those gaps is going to take an astronomical amount of money."
Sir Keir Starmer said the plan amounts to "the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War".
Taking spending on the security and intelligence services into account as well as defence, the budget will amount to a 2.6% share of the economy from 2027.
"We must change our national security posture, because a generational challenge requires a generational response," he said.
Dr Morris also questioned the three percent commitment during the next Parliament, and whether it is as significant as it sounds.
"You've also got to keep in mind that the UK's economy is not looking too healthy," he said.
"Three percent all those years away - is that even going to produce the equivalent of what our current defence spending does today if the UK's economy shrinks, which is a foreseeable outcome?"
The Prime Minister will travel to Washington later this week for talks with the US president, who has repeatedly pushed for Europe to increase its defence spending.
Setting out the need for the UK to respond, he told MPs: "One of the great lessons of our history is that instability in Europe will always wash up on our shores and that tyrants like (Vladimir) Putin only respond to strength."
He said the UK must stand by Ukraine but "as the nature of that conflict changes, as it has in recent weeks, it brings our response into sharper focus, a new era that we must meet".