THE SNP have criticised the UK's Defence Secretary after he said there was “no doubt” that the UK Government would increase spending on defence to 3% of GDP.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer had previously outlined that a 3% spend on defence by 2034 is an “ambitious” target, a view reportedly still held by some senior Whitehall officials. However, John Healey has said it is now a certainty.
The Defence Secretary’s comments mean the Labour Government would be committed to spending more than £10 billion extra on defence every year, despite criticism over proposed cuts to public services.
In February, Starmer announced that the UK would increase spending on defence up to 2.5% of GDP by April 2027, raiding the international development budget, in a move which was branded by the Scottish Government as “deeply disappointing”.
The SNP MP Dave Doogan said Labour are “unable to read the room” following Healey’s comments that the UK Government will spend 3% of GDP on defence by the next parliament.
Doogan (below), the SNP’s defence spokesperson at Westminster, said: “3% by 2034 shows how broke the UK is - this is a decade after Labour have taken power.
“Lead times for new equipment and systems will add further delay to Labour's tardy defence timescales.
“This ‘jam tomorrow’ defence posture won't fix crumbling defence housing or the lamentable recruitment and retention crisis."
He added: “Ballooning nuclear enterprise costs, so high now the government has delayed issuing the new rolling ten year cost of Trident, will consume much of any new defence cash.
“We are firmly in an era of increasingly contested global ambition and global instability where some traditional allies seem increasingly at odds with European values and ambitions and Labour are unwilling or unable to read the room.”
The UK Government's 10-year defence plan on Britain's defence spending, which is due to be announced on Monday, was reportedly due to be published during VE Day week earlier this month but had been delayed because of rows with the Treasury.
One source told The Times there had been “discontent that the Ministry of Defence is using it to push for more defence spending”.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has estimated that reaching 3% of GDP by the next parliament would cost the UK an additional £17.3bn in 2029-30.
Doogan’s comments come after Healey (below) said Labour’s plans to increase military spending are sending a “message to Moscow”.
The UK Government pledged £1.5bn to set up at least six factories and said it would support the procurement of up to 7000 UK-built long-range weapons in response to the strategic defence review (SDR), which is to be published on Monday.
The new funding will see UK munitions spending hit £6bn during this parliament, with Starmer calling the review a “radical blueprint”.
The Prime Minister also pledged a “wave of investments” in shipbuilding, drone technology and cyber defences.
Healey said the £6bn of investment would “equip our forces for the future” and “create jobs in every part of the UK”.
“This is a message to Moscow as well," he told the BBC’s Sunday Morning With Laura Kuenssberg programme.
"This is Britain standing behind, making our armed forces stronger but making our industrial base stronger, and this is part of our readiness to fight, if required.
Healey added that Russia is “attacking the UK daily” as part of some 90,000 cyber attacks from state-linked sources that were directed at the UK’s defence over the last two years.
