With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and growing threats from China and Iran, the previous Conservative administration declared it would raise spending by 2030. The prime minister is under pressure to stick to this timeline.
In an interview with Beth Rigby of News, the political editor, Sir Keir, stated that it was “right to say” that European countries would need to “put more in” to their defense budgets and that these kinds of conversations were the “big theme” of the NATO summit he and US President Joe Biden attended in Washington, DC.
When asked repeatedly if he would guarantee that defense expenditure would reach 2.5% of GDP “by the end of the parliament,” the prime minister responded that he believed it would be “unserious… to simply pick an arbitrary date.”
“Serious commitment” was made on the figure, he added, adding that he wants to “set out a roadmap to it within our fiscal rules.”
