UK Prime Minister pledges to spend 2.5% of GDP on defence by 2027

London, United Kingdom (AFP) February 25 - British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Tuesday pledged to boost defence spending to 2.5 percent of the economy by 2027 with the aim of hiking it to 3 percent in the next parliament.

Ahead of key talks on Ukraine with US President Donald Trump in Washington on Thursday, Starmer told parliament the increase would be funded by cutting overseas development aid from 0.5 percent to 0.3 percent of the economy.

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks during a press conference at the Downing Street Briefing Room in central London on January 21, 2025, following the guilty plea of the Southport attacker Axel Rudakubana. Teenager Axel Rudakubana pleaded guilty Monday to the "unspeakable" killing of three young girls in a stabbing spree last year that sparked the UK's most violent riots in a decade. He admitted murdering three girls, Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe, and Alice da Silva Aguiarthe at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, northwest England on July 29 last year. (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS / POOL / AFP)

Trump has demanded that NATO allies more than double their defence spending targets to five percent of economic output.

The UK spent 2.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on defence in 2023/24.

Starmer's Labour government had previously committed to increasing defence spending to 2.5 percent, but had not set a timeline.

He told lawmakers there would be some "hard choices" but it would be the "biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War".

The government would also "set a clear ambition for defence spending to rise to 3 percent of GDP in the next parliament," he said.

Trump has repeatedly called on European nations to boost their defence spending.

"The nature of warfare has changed significantly. That is clear from the battlefield in Ukraine, and so we must modernise and reform our capabilities as we invest," Starmer said.

"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".