UK defence spending will increase to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 while the foreign aid budget will be cut, Sir Keir Starmer has said ahead of a meeting with Donald Trump.
The rise from the current 2.3% means £13.4bn more will be spent annually on defence after that year, the prime minister announced in an unexpected statement in the Commons.
Sir Keir said he wants defence spending to increase to 3% of gross domestic product in the next parliament, but that would rely on Labour winning the next general election, set for 2029.
The number is much lower than the US president has demanded NATO members spend on defence, with Mr Trump saying they should all be spending 5% – an amount last seen during the Cold War.
Sir Keir also announced the government would cut back on foreign aid to fund the increase, reducing current spending from 0.5% of GDP to 0.3%.
Moments before the announcement, the Foreign Office said it was pausing some aid to Rwanda due to its role in the conflict in neighbouring Congo.
Foreign secretary David Lammy just two weeks ago criticised Mr Trump’s decision to freeze USAID, saying development remains a “very important soft power tool” and is worried without it, he “would be very worried China and others step into that gap”.
Sir Keir said the reduction in foreign aid is “not a renouncement I’m happy to make”, as charities said the cuts would mean more people in the poorest parts of the world would die.
He reiterated the government’s commitment to NATO, which he described as the “bedrock of our security”, and criticised Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying “tyrants only respond to strength”.
Addressing his upcoming visit to the White House to meet Mr Trump, the prime minister said he wants the UK’s relationship with the US to go from “strength to strength”.
