UK spending less on defence than when Labour ruled

THE UK spends less of its national income on defence than it did when Labour left office, a Tory peer has admitted.

Spending on defence as a percentage of GDP has overall fallen from 2.47 per cent in 2010 to 2.28 per cent in 2023, the Earl of Minto said. According to the Lords’ defence minister, the UK has not come any closer to spending 2.5 per cent of its GDP on defence, which is the current government target, since Labour was last in power in 2010.

It comes as the Government comes under increasing pressure to ramp up military spending as global geopolitical tensions worsen.

Responding to a written question from Lord Rogan, of the Ulster Unionist Party, the Earl of Minto provided figures dating back to 2010 on the UK’S defence spending as a percentage of GDP.

Expenditure has gone up since its lowest point of 2.03 per cent in 2015, but still falls short of the 2010 figure.

John Healey, the shadow defence secretary, said that the figures were “another example of how the Conservatives have failed our forces over the last fourteen years”.

He added: “Tory ministers have ‘hollowed out’ our Armed Forces, created a recruitment crisis, and cut the British Army to its smallest size since Napoleon, while wasting over £15 billion in bad defence procurement”.

A Whitehall source said: “We have a plan for defence and have pledged to get to 2.5 per cent of GDP when possible. But Labour cannot be trusted on the defence of our country. Remember Sir Keir Starmer was one of the shadow cabinet that wanted to make Jeremy Corbyn prime minister.”