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PM’s Defence Spending announcement

It comes as no surprise that Keir Starmer has announced an increase in Britain’s military spending two days before he meets Donald Trump to discuss the President Ukraine peace deal. First as Labour leader and now as Prime Minister, Starmer has taken every opportunity to declare his allegiance to the United States, the Nato nuclear alliance, and Britain’s willingness to follow them into war.

Ahead of the Chancellor’s spring budget, and ahead of the Strategic Defence Review’s report, on 25 February, Starmer announced he would allocate:

  • 2.5% GDP on defence in 2027
  • extra funding for intelligence & security services, taking the increase to 2.6%, and
  • 3% in next parliament when economic conditions were right.

Starmer told the Commons:

‘Starting today this government will begin the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the cold war. We will deliver our commitment to spend 2.5% of GDP on defence but we will bring it forward so that we reach that level in 2027 and we will maintain that for the rest of this parliament.

‘But let me spell it out my speaker. That means spending £13.4bn more on defence every year from 2027. But we also face enemies that are sophisticated in cyber attacks and even assassination so our intelligence and security services are an increasingly vital part of protecting both us and our allies. So on top of the funding of 2.5% that I’ve just announced going forward we will recognise the incredible contribution of our intelligence and security services to the defence of the nation which means taken together we will be spending 2.6% on our defence from 2027.

‘We must go further still. I have long argued that in the face of ongoing generational challenges all European allies must step up and do more for our own defence. So subject to economic and fiscal conditions and aligned our strategic and operational needs we will also set a clear ambition for defence spending to rise to 3% of GDP in the next parliament.’

Overseas aid budget raided

To pay for this, the Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget will be cut from the current 0.5% to 0.3% gross national income (GNI) in 2027. Disregarding Labour’s manifesto commitment to return to the UN target of 0.7% GNI, Starmer said the aid budget cut meant ‘fully funding the investment in defence’.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies was quick to point out that the figures don’t add up. An extra 0.2% of GDP provides around £6 billion. Yet the Prime Minister had ‘trumpeted a £13 billion increase in defence spending’. When this discrepancy was raised by Kemi Badenoch the following day in PM Questions, Starmer failed to provide a reasoned response.

International aid is intended to stimulate economic development and welfare in the poorest countries, many of which are ravaged by war. Starmer’s announcement means a cut of around 40%, on top of the cut introduced by the Johnson government in 2021.

Speaking at that time, Starmer said slicing aid to the world’s poorest was callous and not in Britain’s national interest. He accused Boris Johnson of ‘damaging Britain’s reputation around the world’. Those same accusations are coming back to haunt him this time round. This time Starmer not Johnson is in the dock.

Earlier this month, Foreign Secretary David Lammy had suggested Trump’s plans to cut the US aid budget could be a ‘big strategic mistake’. He referred to the UK’s experience of merging the Department for International Development into the Foreign Office as a blow to Britain’s ‘soft power’ internationally.

Aware the international aid budget was under threat, Sir Simon McDonald gave a similar warning of the damage to Britain’s global reputation that cutting international aid would do, a few days ahead of Starmer’s defence spending announcement. McDonald was Permanent Under Secretary at the Foreign Office 2015-20 and a former foreign policy advisor to the Blair government. NGOs have also pointed this out.

Labour in disarray

Starmer’s decision has also brought criticism from Labour MPs and former MPs, and resulted in the resignation of Analeise Dodds, Secretary of State for International Development.

Labour MP Sarah Champion, chair of the International Development Committee, described cutting the aid budget to fund defence spending as ‘a false economy that will only make the world less safe’ and called on the government to rethink. ‘The deep irony is that development money can prevent wars and is used to patch up the consequences of them, cutting this support is counterproductive,’ she said.

Former Secretary of State for International Development Clare Short went further. She described Starmer’s action as ‘disgraceful’, suggesting he ‘doesn’t understand that good development work is crucial to a sustainable future’. The increase in the military budget ‘splashes money on defence spending and Ukraine’, but it is ‘not focused on bringing peace to Ukraine’.

Short further warned the ‘traditional Labour Party’ faces destruction as core supporters abandon the party. ‘I am afraid that, in many respects, this is simply not a Labour government,’ she said.

Starmer’s attempt to get government ducks in a row ahead of his visit with Trump has left the government in disarray. It promises further problems in 2027, if – or should that be when? – other departmental budgets and projects get cut, as the IFS is suggesting is inevitable.

Criticism all round

Senior military figures and security specialists have also criticised cutting overseas aid, though not opposing military spending increases.

Former chief of the general staff, General Lord Richard Dannatt has described this as a ‘strategic mistake’ and warned that this ‘shortsighted’ move will ultimately add to burden on Britain’s armed forces. He says: ‘History shows targeted aid reduces the burden on the military. Labour is risking the very security we are trying to ensure.’

Labour CND says being part of an increasingly expensive Nato war machine, is not keeping Britain safe but making us a target. Will increasing defence spending prove to be the Labour government’s kingdom for a horse moment?

This blog was updated 1 March 2025

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Artists for Palestine puts pressure on Labour to stop arming Israel

As Israel’s Rafah operation takes shape, and concern over Britain’s role in supplying arms to Israel grows, over 100 leading UK artists have added their names to a letter calling on Keir Starmer to take a stand against the atrocities and commit to stopping arms sales to Israel if he becomes prime minister on 4 July. The letter urges Starmer, as a former human rights lawyer, to lead the way in ‘ending UK complicity in war crimes in Gaza’.

Signatories include filmmakers, poets, musicians, actors, broadcasters, writers, and journalists. There are some familiar CND-supporting figures among them, including Juliet Stevenson, Kamila Shamsie, Maxine Peake, Michael Rosen, Peter Kennard, and Victoria Brittain. Visit Artists for Palestine for the full text and a list of a;l signatories.

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Starmer’s ‘triple lock’ on Trident

Within days of the general election being announced, Keir Starmer committed Labour to a ‘triple lock’ on Trident, an attempt to demonstrate nuclear weapons are safe in Labour’s hands. He also reaffirmed Labour’s commitment to match Sunak’s 2.5% increase in military spending which NATO is demanding.

Labour will build four new Dreadnought class submarines to deliver Britain’s nuclear warheads, he said, with at least one submarine at sea 24/7. Starmer also reaffirmed Labour’s decision to match the Tory government pledge to raise military spending  by 2.5% of gross domestic product as soon as possible.

This is a dangerous waste, which mirrors the approach of the Tory government. It signals more war, more military spending, and more nuclear weapons, as CND General Secretary Kate Hudson has pointed out. CND has estimated the cost of upgrading and maintaining Trident at £205 billion. The Conservative commitment to raise military spending to 2.5% by 2030, part of the Spring budget, will amount to an additional £87 billion a year.

CND Chair Tom Unterrainer commented that Starmer had  offered no justification of how nuclear weapons might protect Britain’s security. ‘For a man who claims to care about international law,’ said Unterrainer, ‘there is no mention of how expanding and modernising Britain’s nuclear arsenal goes against these norms. We need a bold vision for what real security means: one that puts climate, food security, and people at its heart, not more militarism and conflict.’

Read CND’s press release here

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Big boost for military spending in the Spring Budget

Starmer: ‘We will look carefully at details of the military spending announcement, and we will support it.’

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has produced a budget for the few not the many. He has promised a £11 billion worth of military funding, while failing to address the cost of living or climate crisess.

What’s on offer for the MoD?
The Ministry of Defence gets a whopping £11 billion more over the next 5 years. It will reach 2.25% of GDP by 2025, with the intention to raise it to 2.5% when fiscal and economic circumstances allow. There’s £5bn extra in the next two years – £2bn this year and £3bn next. Of the £5bn, £3bn goes to nuclear ‘defence’ and the Aukus pact, with the remaining £1.9bn rebuilding Britain’s stockpile of munitions to replace those sent to Ukraine.

Labour’s response
Responding to Hunt, Keir Starmer had only one thing to say about the military budget hike: ‘We bill look carefully at the details of the military spending announcement, and we will suppport it.’ This response is simply not good enough from a Labour leader. None of the problems facing Britain can be resolved by nuclear weapons or war.

CND’s response
We stand with the workers and trade unions striking for better wages and a better future. Instead of spending unnecessary money on more nuclear warheads, CND calls on the government to guarantee fair wages and real pay rises for all. 

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LABOUR CND statement on Nato-Ukraine-Russia

Military posturing fans the flames of war in Europe

Keir Starmer has chosen the moment of mounting tensions over Ukraine to announce that ‘Labour’s commitment to Nato is unshakable’, attempting to justify his stance with selective and inaccurate statements about the defensive and democratic character of the North Atlantic Alliance and accusing those who disagree of showing solidarity with Putin.

Nato is not ‘a defensive alliance that has never provoked conflict’ nor does it provide a ‘guarantee of democracy and security’ as the people of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and elsewhere will readily testify, whose countries have been shattered and lives destroyed by two decades of war.

Neither has Nato ‘ushered in what is now approaching three-quarters of a century of peace between the nations of Europe’. Nato’s bombardment of Yugoslavia in 1999 was the first military attack on a sovereign European country since the end of World War II. It took place without UN approval and is widely regarded as illegal under international law.

Even Denis Healey, who Starmer describes as a ‘giant of the Labour movement’, argued: ‘It was a terrible mistake to attack a sovereign state without even consulting the United Nations… we should have asked Richard Holbrooke [US ambassador to the UN] to have another go at negotiation.’

In contradistinction to the benign picture Starmer seeks to paint, Nato’s evolution includes:

  • The North Atlantic Alliance is a nuclear-armed alliance committed to using nuclear weapons pre-emptively in a military conflict whether or not its adversaries possess nuclear weapons. Since the 1950s, Nato has rejected successive calls to adopt a nuclear no-first use policy.
  • Declassified US documents testify to the fact that the use of nuclear weapons was actively considered during Nato’s first military engagement, the Korean war of 1950-53.
  • The Warsaw Pact dissolved in July 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. By contrast Nato extended its area of operations. In the ensuing three decades, it has expanded its mission statement and enlarged its membership.
  • There are currently 30 Nato member states. Additionally, Nato works with 40 non-member partner states across the globe on a wide range of political and security-related issues. Full Nato members in East Europe include Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Rumania, and Albania, and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania which border Russia. Nato partners with borders on Russia include Finland, Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. Russia’s near abroad – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan – are also Nato partners.
  • Three Nato members are nuclear weapons states – Britain, France and the US. Five European members – Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, and Turkey – host US nuclear weapons on their territories and are pledged to deploy them if Nato so commands.

Tensions between Nato and Russia have been building for three decades. Ukraine must not become the pretext for a military clash between two nuclear armed adversaries.

Labour CND calls for de-escalation and dialogue, not a build-up of armaments and troops leading to the brink of a war in which the people of Ukraine will be the losers. This is a strategy of sanity, in contrast to the military posturings of Britain and the US which fan the flames of war in Europe.

Download a copy for circulation here

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Minister for Peace & Disarmament remains

Fabian Hamilton, MP for Leeds NE since 1997 retains his Front Bench post as Shadow Minister for Peace and Disarmament

Labour CND is delighted to see that the Front Bench post of Shadow Minister for Peace and Disarmament is to be retained under the new leadership, and will continue to be ably filled by Fabian Hamilton MP. Fabian will be working with colleagues in the Shadow Foreign and Commonwealth Office team, including Catherine West, another committed nuclear disarmamer and Vice President of London Region CND. Congratulations both.

Labour’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office team, led by Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy, comprises Wayne David (Ministter for Middle East and North Africa) Stephen Doughty (Africa, jointly with DFID) Stephen Kinnock (Asia and Pacific) Catherine West (Europe & Americas) and Fabian Hamilton (Peace and Disarmament). It is not yet known if Fabian’s post has the same brief before, which also ranges across policy areas within the defence team.

Thanks to everyone who participated in Labour CND’s online lobby in support of the Minister of Peace post.

Details of Labour’s new front bench here

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Save Labour’s Minister for Peace

Labour’s 2019 manifesto promised that ‘international peace and security will be a primary objective of a Labour government’s foreign policy’. Under Jeremy Corbyn a new post of Shadow Minister for Peace and Disarmament was established, with a brief to pursue these issues across policy areas.

Labour CND urges everyone who supports nuclear disarmament to help ensure this post is retained by the new Labour leader. Please contact Keir Starmer and ask him to retain this post, and write to your local Labour MP if you have one to let them know that this is important to you.

It only takes a minute to participate in our online lobby. Here’s how