{"id":621267,"date":"2025-12-09T02:34:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T02:34:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/621267\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T02:34:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T02:34:19","slug":"keir-starmer-set-to-enrage-donald-trump-over-broken-uk-promise-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/621267\/","title":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer set to enrage Donald Trump over broken UK-promise | UK | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keir Starmer could be set to backtrack on defence spending pledges, just months after promising Donald Trump<\/a> that Britain would spend more. Labour refrained from committing to defence spending increases<\/a> in their manifesto, pledging simply to spend more when economic conditions allowed.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s re-election and continued assault on NATO<\/a> members’ pitiful contributions saw the PM pledge to increase spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027. This was backed up with a pledge to hit 3% in the next parliamen<\/a>t. In June, following pressure from the US administration, Starmer joined NATO allies in committing to spending 3.5% of GDP by 2035<\/a>, with an additional 1.5% on defence-related infrastructure.<\/p>\n

With a raft of pledges, you would be forgiven for believing that the Ministry of Defence (MOD) would be awash with cash, but according to insiders, the department is braced for real-term cuts to its expenditure.<\/p>\n

Rachel Reeves<\/a>\u2019s Budget did little to suggest that defence<\/a> stands out as a priority for the Government, with no new announcements, despite the level of threat posed by Russia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Whilst billions of pounds were invested in adding to the already mammoth welfare bill, there was little to say on defence.<\/p>\n

Defence<\/a> officials warned in the lead-up to the Budget that the likelihood of further defence pledges was minimal, given the announcements of recent months.<\/p>\n

But other figures within the defence sector have warned that proposed increases to spending will just about cover existing commitments, leaving no capital or resource spending to invest in additional capabilities.<\/p>\n

A senior executive at a leading UK defence manufacturer<\/a> told the Daily Express that pledges do little to inspire the confidence required in the industry.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWe have the ability to ramp up production but we need concrete orders in the book to do so.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t expect industry to invest capital upfront in projects which don\u2019t ultimately come to fruition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another defence source told POLITICO<\/a>: \u201cRight now, in 2025, there isn’t any new money, and they [the MoD] were already underwater on their commitments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, a former military chief warned that spending over the next decade \u201cmust be planned and signalled now\u201d after Reeves was \u201clargely silent\u201d on military spending, in the Budget.<\/p>\n

Lord Craig of Radley argued \u201ccredibility rests on not just words but firm resources being allocated\u201d and warned armed forces could not be built up overnight.<\/p>\n

He said in the Lords: \u201cCredibility rests on not just words but firm resources being allocated.<\/p>\n

\u201cArmed forces cannot be built up overnight. Long-term planning and certainties are necessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Treasury ministers signal hesitation, or worse, indifference, while our Prime Minister signals resolve, that sends a mixed message to allies, to those who challenge us and to our armed forces themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cTo treat defence as a residual claim on the public purse is to invert the priorities that safeguard our national interests. Will the Treasury now share the Prime Minister\u2019s strategic vision? Will the Treasury accept that increasing defence expenditure for the next decade must be planned and signalled now, not judged later by the elegance of some inflexible fiscal rules or by changeable, maybe dodgy, forecasts?\u201d<\/p>\n

A Government spokesperson said: \u201cThe Government is delivering on the Strategic Defence Review as a deliverable and affordable plan for Defence to meet the challenges, threats and opportunities of the twenty-first century. It is backed by the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War – hitting 2.6% of GDP by 2027 with an ambition for 3% when fiscal and economic conditions allow in the next Parliament.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are working flat out to finalise the Defence Investment Plan, which will deliver the best kit and technology into the hands of our frontline forces at speed and, importantly, invest in and grow the UK economy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer could be set to backtrack on defence spending pledges, just months after promising Donald Trump that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[2993,31610,32,807,2821,83055,12,16,178203,64186,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-621267","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-defence","10":"tag-defence-spending","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-keir-starmer","13":"tag-nato","14":"tag-nato-defence-spending","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-uk-budget","18":"tag-uk-defence-spending","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115687277457143960","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}