Britain announced a major increase in defense spending on February 25, 2025, two days before Prime Minister Keir Starmer was due to meet U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House. The decision accelerated an existing Labour commitment as European governments faced pressure to strengthen their own defense capabilities and uncertainty over the future course of U.S. policy toward Ukraine and European security.
In a statement to the House of Commons, Starmer said the United Kingdom would reach defense spending equivalent to 2.5% of gross domestic product in 2027, rather than leaving the target without a firm date. He said that represented an additional £13.4 billion a year compared with the level of spending at the time.
Britain Brings Forward Its Defense Target
The Labour government had already promised to raise defense spending from roughly 2.3% of GDP to 2.5%, but had not previously specified when it would reach that level. Starmer also set out an ambition to increase spending to 3% of GDP during the next Parliament, subject to economic and fiscal conditions.
The announcement came amid heightened concern about Russia's war against Ukraine and the long-term demands of European defense. Starmer told Parliament that Britain needed to change its national-security posture in response to what he described as a generational challenge.
The government also said intelligence and security spending would increasingly be recognized within its measure of NATO-qualifying defense expenditure. Subsequent government budget documents therefore put the planned NATO-qualifying total at 2.6% of GDP from 2027, while the original February commitment for defense spending itself was 2.5%.
Development Aid Cut to Help Fund the Increase
The additional defense commitment came with a significant budget trade-off. Starmer announced that Official Development Assistance would be reduced from 0.5% to 0.3% of gross national income by 2027, with the savings redirected toward defense. The distinction is important: Britain's aid target is measured against GNI, while its defense commitments are generally expressed as a share of GDP.
Starmer said he regretted the reduction in development assistance but argued that national defense and security had to take priority in the changed security environment. The government said it remained committed to returning aid spending to 0.7% of GNI when fiscal circumstances allowed.
The decision drew criticism from development advocates and some lawmakers. Sarah Champion, chair of the House of Commons International Development Committee, argued that reducing aid to finance defense could undermine longer-term security by weakening efforts to address conflict, poverty, climate pressures and instability abroad.
Trump, NATO and European Burden Sharing
The timing gave the announcement additional diplomatic significance. Trump had repeatedly pressed European NATO members to spend more on their own defense, making burden sharing an important issue in transatlantic relations.
At the time of Starmer's February announcement, NATO's established benchmark called for allies to spend at least 2% of GDP on defense. Pressure for substantially higher investment was already growing as NATO governments assessed the capabilities required for deterrence and collective defense.
Starmer nevertheless emphasized that Britain did not view stronger European defense as an alternative to its relationship with the United States. He rejected what he called a false choice between allies on either side of the Atlantic and reaffirmed Britain's commitment to NATO and the transatlantic relationship.
The debate was unfolding alongside a broader European discussion about strategic dependence on Washington. Friedrich Merz, whose CDU/CSU alliance had just finished first in Germany's February 2025 federal election and who later became chancellor, argued that Europe needed to strengthen its ability to provide for its own security.
Ukraine Diplomacy Added Urgency
Starmer's Washington visit also took place during a period of rapidly changing diplomacy over Ukraine. The Trump administration had opened direct contacts with Russia over ending the war, raising questions among European governments and Kyiv about Europe's role in negotiations and the security arrangements that could follow any ceasefire or settlement.
French President Emmanuel Macron visited Washington earlier in the same week. Macron and Trump publicly differed on some details surrounding European assistance to Ukraine, while Macron stressed the importance of maintaining U.S.-European cooperation.
After his Washington meeting, Starmer was scheduled to host European leaders in London to discuss Ukraine and European security. Those diplomatic efforts did not themselves constitute a peace agreement or ceasefire; they were part of continuing negotiations over support for Ukraine and possible security arrangements.
Later NATO Commitments Went Much Further
Later developments substantially raised the alliance-wide spending benchmark. At the NATO summit in The Hague in June 2025, allies agreed to a new target of investing 5% of GDP annually in defense and defense-related security spending by 2035.
Under that framework, allies committed at least 3.5% of GDP to core defense requirements and NATO capability targets, with up to another 1.5% allocated to defense- and security-related areas such as critical infrastructure, resilience, networks and the defense industrial base. The commitment marked a major increase from NATO's earlier 2% benchmark.
Britain's February 2025 announcement should therefore be understood in its original context: it accelerated the government's existing 2.5% defense pledge ahead of Starmer's talks with Trump. Subsequent British budget decisions and NATO agreements expanded the spending framework further as European governments adjusted their defense plans to a changing security environment.
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