Defence Investment Plan Critics: Spending Still Falls Short of NATO Peers
Critics of the Defence Investment Plan have argued through Tuesday that the spending still falls well short of what Britain needs. An expert who helped draft the Strategic Defence Review said publicly the plan “will not be enough to prepare the country for war”. GB News commentary called the plan “not worth the paper it’s written on”. Defence Secretary John Healey had reportedly told Starmer the plan “falls well short” of what defence requires. UK defence spending will reach 2.69% of GDP by 2030 under the plan, compared with Germany’s 3.7% and Poland’s 4.48%. The Burnham incoming team will face pressure to revise the envelope upward.
The peer-comparison gap is the principal criticism: with NATO members generally targeting 3% or higher and frontline states such as Poland already at 4.48%, the UK’s 2.69% by 2030 puts Britain mid-pack at a time when other allies are accelerating. The 2.5% by 2027 milestone is real but still trails most major European NATO members. The Burnham team has signalled it will treat defence as a priority area for early-administration review — expect a fresh announcement on the funding envelope within the first three months of the new Prime Minister taking office.