Sir Keir Starmer has warned that intelligence assessments point to the possibility of Russia attacking NATO as soon as 2030, as he set out the urgency behind a forthcoming increase in British defence spending, GB News reported. Speaking about the country's military future, the Prime Minister said the assessment was shared by the UK and by other countries within the alliance, and he used it to underline why defence had become such a pressing priority for the government.
The Prime Minister framed the coming changes around the Strategic Defence Review, which he described as a massive exercise designed to answer what military capability the country needs now, in five years and in ten years. He said a great deal of that work focused on technology and on making more of autonomous capability, arguing that the pace of change meant the armed forces had to stay ahead of the curve rather than fall behind it.
To put the review into effect, Starmer said the government has drawn up a Defence Investment Plan, which he characterised as the plan that sets out the money to go alongside the capability and brings the two together. He acknowledged it amounts to another step up and another increase in spending, but insisted that the rise is necessary and the right thing to do in order to defend the country.
According to the Prime Minister, the plan has been worked on for some time and developed closely with the armed forces, which he said was essential given the need for that interaction. He described it as a cross-government priority aimed at identifying the capability most needed and the timeframe for delivering it, rather than the responsibility of the Ministry of Defence alone.
Starmer said the Defence Investment Plan will be published before the NATO summit, which is only a few weeks away, an event he called important because it brings countries from across the world together. He praised NATO as the single most effective military alliance the world has ever seen, and tied the timing of the plan directly to the warning over a potential Russian attack by the end of the decade.
The Prime Minister also linked the higher spending to employment, saying he was determined that the increase in defence investment should be accompanied by good, well paid and skilled jobs based in the United Kingdom. He said the benefits needed to be felt in every community across the country, and that the funding and capability would come on the condition that those jobs went with it, with new technology opening the chance for them to be spread to different places.
Casting the effort as a matter of national duty, Starmer said defending the country was the most solemn obligation of a prime minister, while also presenting it as an opportunity to build on the United Kingdom's standing. He said the country was one of the leading nations on defence and security, pointing to its leading role in coalitions formed to deal with Ukraine or Iran, and crediting the reputation of the armed forces and the wider defence sector behind them.