KEIR Starmer has said Labour will raid the international development budget to boost defence spending.
In a move to meet US president Donald Trump's demands for allies to increase their military budgets, the Prime Minister said that defence spending would reach 2.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2027.
That would increase the annual spend on defence up by an extra £13.4 billion every year from 2027, Starmer added.
Coupled with increased funding for intelligence and security services would take this to 2.6% of GDP overall with an aim to boost this further to 3% after 2029.
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn (above) said he welcomed increased defence spending but said slashing the foreign aid budget was taken from the "populist playbook".
Referencing comments by David Lammy earlier this month that the US would leave a power vacuum with its cuts to foreign aid, Flynn added: "He said that it would be a big strategic mistake that would allow China to step in. Why was the Foreign Secretary wrong and the Prime Minister right?”
Starmer said the decision to cut foreign aid was not "ideological", adding: "He welcomes the increase in defence spending but he doesn’t want to say how he will fund it.
"Choices, grown-up choices about the future of Europe require grown-up decisions and choices and that is what we’ve done.”
The Prime Minister said that the international aid budget would be decreased from 0.5% of gross national income to 0.3% to "fully" military spending, adding: "This is not an announcement I am happy to make."
The increase to defence spending would making the "biggest sustained increase" since the end of the Cold War, Starmer said as he pitched the move as a response to the "menace" of Russia.
Starmer also argued that he would reject the "false choice" between siding with the European Union or America on Ukraine, telling the Commons: "When I meet president Trump, I will be clear I want this relationship to go from strength to strength, but strength in this world also depends on a new alliance with Europe.”
The Prime Minister also said increased military spending would "reach into" every area of life in the UK and was compatible with Labour's quest to boost sluggish economic growth.
He said: "We must change our national security posture, because a generational challenge requires a generational response, that will demand some extremely difficult and painful choices.
“And through those choices, as hard as they are, we must also seek unity, a whole society effort that will reach into the lives, the industries, and the homes of the British people.”
Starmer added: "This investment means that the UK will strengthen its position as a leader in Nato and in the collective defence of our continent, and we should welcome that role.
“It is good for our national security. It is also good for the defining mission of this Government – to restore growth to our economy.”
