Defence: Finance
The question
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the impact of the additional £32 billion required to meet the pledge to spend 3.5% of GDP identified by the Office for Budget Responsibility in its 2025 Economic Financial Outlook.
Answered by James Murray
We are set to spend 2.6 percent of GDP on defence spending in 2027, with an ambition to spend 3 percent of GDP on defence next Parliament when economic and fiscal conditions allow.
The Government is also committed to hitting a headline ambition of 5 percent of GDP on national security spending by the Parliament after next. This is currently split into 1.5% on security and resilience-related spend, and 3.5% core defence spending.
This new NATO target is a decade away. We remain committed to plans announced at the Spending Review. In 2029, when NATO review capability requirements and this pledge, the UK and Allies will review the trajectory and the balance of spending between defence and wider national resilience.
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