Tories Pledge 3% Defence Spending by 2029, Paid From Welfare
The Conservatives announced overnight they would lift defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2029-30, funded by £10bn of savings drawn largely from social security — including cuts to local housing allowance, frozen since 2024 and already short of most rents. Kemi Badenoch, ahead of her defence speech: “Like Keir Starmer, Andy Burnham is kicking defence spending into the long grass. I cannot tell you how urgent this is.” Mr Burnham has pledged NATO’s 3.5% — but by 2035.
The politics of the pairing are the story: defence hawkery is consensus now, so the argument has moved to sequencing and financing, and Ms Badenoch has chosen the starkest possible funding source — housing support for the poorest renters — at a moment when her party is fighting Reform for the same voters. The policy substance cuts both ways: 2029 versus 2035 is a genuine difference with Russian drones falling on EU soil weekly, and the government’s own army has just been ordered to curtail training for want of money; but housing allowance cuts feed directly into homelessness budgets, which is why her own spokesman conceded the knock-on costs are still “being assessed”. Watch whether Labour answers on the defence timetable or the welfare price tag — whichever they choose reveals where they think the votes are.