UK vows defense spending boost by 2030 but dodges hard questions

LONDON — Britain's top finance minister on Wednesday promised an uplift in defense spending by 2030 to "set the direction" for meeting a crucial NATO target — but didn't lay out how the government will get there.

John Healey quit as U.K. defense secretary in the dying days of Keir Starmer's government in a row over funding. On Wednesday he gave his first budget as chancellor under new Prime Minister Andy Burnham, setting out the government's tax and spending plans.

Healey committed for the first time to spending 3% of GDP on the nation's defenses by 2030 — something he had called for when he quit Starmer's administration. But he declined to say where he would find the money, a staging post on the way to meeting NATO's target of 3.5% of GDP by 2035. Instead, he said a broader review of government spending would address it next year.

Increasing spending would include "looking hard at public spending" and using "innovative financing," including a joint procurement initiative with Finland, Poland, and the Netherlands, Healey vowed.

Healey's more immediate task was to find £4.7 billion to plug gaps in the blueprint for developing the U.K.'s armed forces, the Defence Investment Plan, published earlier this year after long delays. The Treasury said £3 billion would come from "reprioritization of capital budgets" across the U.K. government, including £1.7 billion of cuts to the energy department.

The chancellor and prime minister both sought to show they had prioritized the U.K.'s security commitments in the budget, with Burnham and Healey speaking to Volodymyr Zelenskyy ahead of the statement and pledging £10 billion in additional economic and military support for Ukraine.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte posted on X: "I welcome this move to put [the U.K.] on a credible path towards meeting the commitment made by all NATO Allies in The Hague — to ensure we’re all investing what’s needed to remain ready [and] able to deter aggression and defend our freedom and security."

However, the lack of detail did not go unnoticed in the budget's immediate aftermath.

Conservative Party Leader Kemi Badenoch responded to Healey's speech: "You can't have social security without national security... There are huge problems coming down the road but this Budget is simply trying to get through the day."

Kelly Maddison of the manufacturers' body Make UK Defence said work is needed "on how exactly it plans to reach 3% of GDP on defence by 2030" and "industry needs to know that the commitment to defence is there long term to strengthen business confidence to invest.”