What does the pledge mean? 

On 25 February 2025 the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced the UK will spend 2.5% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on defence from 2027. 

He told MPs: “We will deliver our commitment to spend 2.5% of GDP on defence, but we will bring it forward so that we reach that level in 2027 and we will maintain that for the rest of this Parliament.” 

‘Defence spending’ in this context is broader than just the annual budget of the Ministry of Defence (MOD). The government previously told Full Fact that it refers to all defence spending that falls within the definition of NATO-qualifying spend. This includes some things outside the MOD’s budget, such as armed forces pensions and the Integrated Security Fund, a fund for projects that aim to help tackle threats to the UK’s national security. 

NATO members first agreed in 2006 to spend 2% of their GDP on NATO-qualifying defence, then reaffirmed this commitment in 2014. The UK has met this target consistently, and has exceeded it in recent years, spending 2.3% on defence in each of the last four years.

In April 2024, the then-Conservative government committed to spending 2.5% of GDP on defence by 2030, and Labour’s 2024 election manifesto included a commitment to “set out the path” to reaching 2.5%. 

While Mr Starmer said the 2.5% target would now be achieved “in 2027”, a press release issued the same day said the commitment is “to increase spending on defence to 2.5% of GDP from April 2027”, meaning that spending will reach this proportion in the 2027/28 financial year. 

Sometimes budgets and spending can change over the course of a financial year, so we won’t know definitively if the 2.5% target has been achieved until the end of 2027/28 (unless it is reached in an earlier year). 

The government has also announced that it will update the definition of defence spending “to recognise what our security and intelligence agencies do to boost our security”, and that this will mean that total defence spending from 2027 will be 2.6%. 

It wasn’t immediately clear, however, if this change in the UK’s definition of defence spending correlates with NATO’s definition, and, as such, if the government plans to spend 2.5% or 2.6% of GDP on NATO-qualifying defence in 2027/28. 

When we asked the MOD about this, it told us that more details on the change in definition will be set out in the Spending Review, in June 2025.

However, the Spending Review did not explicitly set out the government’s changed definition of defence spending. We have asked the MOD for more information on its definition, and will update this page if we receive a response.

What progress has been made?

In the June 2025 Spending Review, the government confirmed its plans for total defence spending to rise to 2.6% of GDP by April 2027, including an increase in “the share of intelligence spending that is spent as NATO-qualifying defence expenditure”.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the increase to 2.6% will amount to an extra £11 billion in “defence spending” over the entire Spending Review period (2023/24 to 2028/29) and a “£600 million uplift for our security and intelligence agencies”.

This increase in NATO-qualifying spend will be funded by a reduction in Official Development Assistance (ODA, also known as the overseas aid budget), from 0.5% of Gross National Income (GNI) to 0.3%. The government told us in February 2025 this would provide £6.1 billion, and Mr Starmer said at the time this would fully fund the defence spending increase.

The government said that day-to-day spending on the Ministry of Defence specifically will see an annual growth rate of 3.6% over the Spending Review period, and it will reach £73.5 billion in 2028/29. The government says this increase means “total NATO-qualifying defence spending is on a clear path to reach 2.6% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2027”, though it’s important to note again that NATO-qualifying spend also includes things outside the MOD’s budget.

However, year-on-year details of how exactly the UK will increase NATO-qualifying defence spending to 2.5% of GDP in 2027/28, from its current level of 2.3%, have not yet been published.

We asked the government in February 2025 if it will be producing a year-by-year plan, such as that published by the last government, and it told us that the Prime Minister had outlined his commitment and any further details would be published “in due course”. Following the Spending Review, we asked the MOD when these details will be published, and will update this page if we receive a response.

Without this year-on-year information, we’re not yet able to fully monitor the government’s progress towards the 2.5% target, so we won’t have an indication if the target looks as though it is “on track”, “off track”, or will be met ahead of the pledge’s deadline.