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Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to meet a new Nato target to spend 5% of the UK’s GDP on national security by 2035.<\/p>\n
At a Nato summit in the Netherlands, 32 member countries including the UK are expected to agree the 5% goal, with 3.5% to go on core defence and the remaining 1.5% on defence-related areas such as resilience and security. <\/p>\n
The split target is aimed at placating US President Donald Trump, who has urged Nato allies to spend more, while giving cash-strapped EU countries flexibility over how they meet the target.<\/p>\n
Downing Street has argued measures on energy and tackling smuggling gangs could be classified as security spending. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Conservative shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel accused ministers of announcing the target with “no new money” to fund it.<\/p>\n
Dame Priti said the government should raise funding sooner because of the dangerous “state of geopolitics”.<\/p>\n
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, she added: “I don’t think they can go to a meeting of Nato and speak about funding that could come in 10 years’ time, when there’s a real and present threat to us now.”<\/p>\n
Both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats have supported increasing defence spending. <\/p>\n
Liberal Democrat defence spokesperson Helen Maguire said it was “absolutely right” the government matched the 5% Nato spending target, “especially after the damage done to our defence by the Conservatives”.<\/p>\n
“The threat of Putin’s Russia – combined with the unpredictability of the Trump White House – demands a once-in-a-generation commitment,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Speaking ahead of the two-day summit, Sir Keir said the UK had to “navigate this era of radical uncertainty with agility, speed and a clear-eyed sense of the national interest”. <\/p>\n
“After all, economic security is national security, and through this strategy we will bring the whole of society with us, creating jobs, growth and wages for working people.”<\/p>\n
Nato (the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) is made up of 32 member countries who agree to defend each other if attacked. <\/p>\n
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and Trump’s re-election as US president last year, members of the organisation have faced increased pressure to boost their defence spending.<\/p>\n
Countries had been expected to spend at least 2% of their national income – or GDP – on defence, although last year, only 23 hit that target – an increase from three in 2014.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
In January, Trump said 2% was “not enough” and that Nato allies should be spending 5%.<\/p>\n
And speaking last year before his re-election, he said he would “encourage” aggressors to “do whatever the hell they want” to European allies who don’t pay their way.<\/p>\n
In February, Sir Keir set out plans to increase the UK’s defence spending, as opposed to national security spending, to 2.5% by April 2027 and expressed a “clear ambition” to reach 3% by 2034 if economic conditions allowed.<\/p>\n
On Monday, the government said it expected to reach the target of spending 4.1% of GDP on national security by 2027.<\/p>\n
The 1.5% element of the 5% Nato target is for what is described as “resilience”, such as border security and protection against cyber attacks.<\/p>\n
For the UK, this latter element is expected to be met by the year after next, with core defence spending reaching 2.6% by then. <\/p>\n
Getting core defence spending to 3.5% is not expected until 2035 \u2013 two general elections away \u2013 and Downing Street hasn’t said how it will be paid for.<\/p>\n
Based on the current size of the economy, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) estimates that delivering the 3.5% pledge would cost an extra \u00a330bn a year in today’s terms, putting “considerable additional pressure on the public finances”.<\/p>\n
Alongside the spending commitment, the government published its National Security Strategy which said the UK needed to be more “competitive and robust” in science, education, trade and frontier technology. <\/p>\n
It also sought to stress that investment in defence would be felt “directly in the pockets of working people” pointing to new jobs that would be created. <\/p>\n
The summit will be Mark Rutte’s first as secretary general of Nato. Speaking at a press conference on Monday, the former Dutch prime minister said the 5% spending commitment was “a quantum leap that is ambitious, historic and fundamental to securing our future”.<\/p>\n
However, it is unclear how nations will meet the target or whether they will at all.<\/p>\n
On Sunday evening, Spain claimed it had secured an opt-out, something later denied by Rutte.<\/p>\n
Ukraine is not a member of Nato and although President Volodymyr Zelensky has been invited to the summit dinner he will not be taking part in discussions of the North Atlantic Council.<\/p>\n
Last week, Ed Arnold from the defence think tank Rusi told the BBC contentious issues – including a new Russia strategy – had been removed from the summit’s agenda. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n