Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

NATO Defence Expenditure Target

Monday 15 December 2025 · 4 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 1 Partly answered 3 Not answered 0

Key points

  • The Secretary of State committed to reaching a 5% NATO defence expenditure target by 2035, exceeding previous expectations.
  • The current Government aims to achieve 3% of GDP on defence spending in the next Parliament, a level not reached since 2010.
  • The Secretary of State highlighted increased defence spending from 54 billion to over 65 billion in the current and next fiscal years.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Greg Smith Con Mid Buckinghamshire
Defence Economy
Context

MP asks about the UK's commitment to NATO's defence expenditure target of 5% of GDP by 2035. He notes the absence of analysis in the recent Budget Red Book regarding future defence spending.

Question

I am grateful to the Secretary of State for that answer, but it is curious to see what is and is not in the Red Book from the Budget we just had. Page 88 shows in intricate detail just how big the welfare budget will get as a result of the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap, but there is no such analysis anywhere in the Red Book of defence spending. Will he set out clearly at the Dispatch Box when the UK will hit the domestic 3% target, and when we will ultimately get to that 5% target? In which financial year will that be?

Answer from The Secretary of State for Defence (John Healey)

We have committed to the target of 5% by 2035, like all 31 other allies. This Government have already put in an extra £5 billion in the first year and will hit 2.6% by 2027—three years earlier than anyone expected. We have an ambition for 3% in the next Parliament.

Answered
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Q2 Peter Fortune Con Bromley and Biggin Hill
Defence
Context

MP questions the Secretary of State's inability to provide exact details on when defence spending will reach specific targets, contrasting it with detailed welfare budget analysis in the Budget Red Book.

Question

It was troubling to hear—unless I misheard the answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Buckinghamshire (Greg Smith)—that the Secretary of State can talk with exactitude about the future of welfare spending, but not of defence spending. I remind him that the last time a Government spent 3% on defence was in 1996, and it was a Conservative Government. He is eloquent, but I would like him to be exact. When specifically—in which financial year—can we expect to hit 3% on defence spending?

Answer from The Secretary of State for Defence (John Healey)

If the hon. Member wants to trade records, his Government had 14 years to raise defence spending; it falls to this Government to raise it back to 2.5%—the level it was at in 2010, when Labour was last in government—and we will hit 3% in the next Parliament.

Partly answered

Not addressed: Did not provide a specific financial year for hitting the 3% target

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Q3 Derek Twigg Lab Widnes and Halewood
Defence
Context

MP expresses support for the Secretary of State's work on improving defence capabilities but calls for accelerated spending due to current threats from Russia and other adversaries.

Question

I record my thanks and appreciation to the Secretary of State and his ministerial team for the work they are doing to improve our defence capabilities and leadership in NATO and Europe, as well as on the defence industrial base. We have heard from Conservative Members, who of course are responsible for the massive underspending on defence. However, we have to move on from that. Given the threats that we face, today and in the coming months, from Russia and other adversaries, it is clear that we need to accelerate our spending on defence as soon as possible. Will the Secretary of State do all he can to ensure that we get more resources into defence, so that we can maintain our leadership position in Europe, and so that our armed forces are fit to deal with the threats that we face?

Answer from The Secretary of State for Defence (John Healey)

We are doing exactly what my hon. Friend urges me to do. He, like me, will be proud of the fact that the Labour Government have produced a strategic defence review—a landmark shift in defence to make us more warfighting-ready—a defence industrial strategy that will make defence an engine for growth in this country, and a housing strategy that puts an end to the worst ever Tory privatisation and pumps £9 billion into a generational renewal of our forces’ military housing, which has already started. This Labour Government are delivering for defence, and delivering for Britain.

Partly answered

Not addressed: Did not address the specific request for accelerated spending

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Q4 Emma Lewell Lab South Shields
Defence
Context

MP inquires about the UK's public support for civil preparedness and resilience measures, questioning whether it meets the Government’s assumptions.

Question

Allies rightly agreed that up to 1.5% of GDP would go towards civil preparedness and resilience measures, but public support for our current commitments—let alone for mobilisation in a crisis—does not meet Government assumptions. Will my right hon. Friend say how he plans to address that, so that we fully meet our article 3 obligations?

Answer from The Secretary of State for Defence (John Healey)

I will. My hon. Friend, who serves on the Defence Committee and did in the previous Parliament, will remember that total spending on defence in the last year of the last Government was just under £54 billion. She will know that this year and next year, it is set to be over £65 billion. She will see the increase in defence spending, she will recognise the importance of making that commitment, and she will recognise the value of the strategic defence review in setting the vision for transforming our forces, so that they are more ready to warfight, and better able to deter.

Partly answered

Not addressed: Did not address public support issues specifically

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