Britain will accelerate an increase to its defense spending, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Tuesday, on the eve of a crucial visit to meet US President Donald Trump in Washington. <\/p>\n
Starmer said he will raise military spending from 2.3% of Britain\u2019s GDP to 2.5% by 2027, and then again to 2.6% the following year, as a rift opens up between Trump and Europe over the future of the war in Ukraine. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe must reject any false choice between our allies. Between one side of the Atlantic or the other. That is against our history, country and party,\u201d Starmer told members of parliament. He called Britain\u2019s relationship with America his country\u2019s \u201cmost important bilateral alliance,\u201d and said: \u201cThis week when I meet President Trump, I will be clear: I want this relationship to go from strength to strength.\u201d <\/p>\n
Starmer also set an ambition to hike defense spending to 3% in the next parliament, which will begin in 2029 at the latest, after the next general election. That final target would depend on the fiscal conditions at the time, Starmer said. Trump has urged NATO countries to raise their defense spending to 5% and made clear that the US will not work to maintain Europe\u2019s security in the future. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis government will begin the biggest sustained increase in defense spending since the end of the Cold War,\u201d Starmer told parliament as he laid out the plans. <\/p>\n
The increase will be funded in part through a cut to international development spending, which will now fall from 0.5% of Britain\u2019s GDP to 0.3% in the coming years, Starmer said. \u201cThat is not an announcement I am happy to make,\u201d he said, adding the defense increase \u201ccan only be funded through hard choices.\u201d <\/p>\n
Charities who will be affected by the cuts to international development spending said that they were \u201cshocked\u201d and \u201cstunned\u201d by Starmer\u2019s decision. <\/p>\n
WaterAid, a charity focused on providing clean water and water systems to those in need, called the move a \u201ccruel betrayal of people living in poverty globally.\u201d <\/p>\n
The CEO of Save The Children UK, Moazzam Malik, said in a statement that the cuts will \u201cmake the world a more dangerous place for children now and in the future.\u201d <\/p>\n
And the co-CEO of ActionAid UK, a charity working with women and girls living in poverty, called the cuts \u201creckless,\u201d writing in a statement that \u201cthere is no justification for abandoning the world\u2019s most marginalized time and time again to navigate geopolitical developments.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a political choice \u2014 one with devastating consequences,\u201d Hannah Bond said. <\/p>\n
Britain\u2019s previous Conservative government set a goal to reach the 2.5% target on defense spending by 2030. After winning a general election last year, Starmer maintained the goal, but refused to set a timeline on when it would be achieved. <\/p>\n
\u201cCourage is what our own era now demands of us,\u201d Starmer told MPs as he announced the new timeframe. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Britain will accelerate an increase to its defense spending, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Tuesday, on the eve of a crucial visit to meet US President Donald Trump in Washington. Starmer said he will raise military spending from 2.3% of Britain\u2019s GDP to 2.5% by 2027, and then again to 2.6% the following year, as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}