Starmer’s costly promise
Starmer’s off to the Nato Summit with a promise even more military spending
As Keir Starmer heads off to Ankara for his last hurrah at the 2026 Nato Summit, Labour’s shortest ever serving Prime Minister is set to pledge another increase in UK military spending, starting this year. London CND Chair Carol Turner explains what’s afoot.
The recently published Defence Investment Plan (DIP) was Keir Starmer’s resignation swan song. In Greek myth, the song of the swan symbolises harmony and beauty, but the PM’s final bequest to Britain was anything but that. It means Britain’s military spending will rise even higher than agreed last year.
DIP sets out the Ministry of Defence’s spending and equipment priorities for the next 10 years, but Starmer’s announcement does not include detailed spending plans beyond 2029-30. He has promised an additional £15bn to 2029 on top of the £298bn allocated in the 2025 Spending Review. This means £79.1bn by 2029. From 2027 on, Britain will spend 2.7% of GDP on defence spending, solidifying its position as the Alliance’s third-largest spender after the US and Germany.
To cover part of the extra cost, 1% annually will be skimmed off every department’s capital budget to fund the MoD’s shopping spree. The investment budgets of the Transport and Energy Security & Net Zero departments will also suffer additional cuts of £800 million and £2bn respectively over the four years. This still leaves Starmer’s successor with a £5bn spending hole to plug, however, by the time the 2026 budget is announced DIP includes:
confirmation that the government will purchase the 12 F-35A nuclear-capable jets on order from the US, to allow Britain to take part in Nato’s nuclear mission
a ring fenced £63 billion for the Royal Navy’s nuclear enterprise, for the continued upkeep of the Vanguard class nuclear submarines and funding for the Dreadnought class replacements
funding for Trident’s new warhead
building up to 12 SSN-AUKUS nuclear-powered submarines, double the number currently planned.
According to the MoD’s explainer, ‘the Defence Investment Plan will provide long-term certainty over government procurement and innovation priorities’. This, of course, is at the expense of certainty for the overwhelming majority of people in Britain for whom the cost of living continues to rise.
CND has condemned the DIP, calling for genuine security, not a new arms race. General Secretary, Sophie Bolt described the DIP as reckless: ‘These are political choices,’ she said, ‘and they are the wrong ones.’