What does the pledge mean?

Strategic Defence Reviews are papers in which governments outline their upcoming defence priorities and strategic interests, and look at the organisation and capabilities of the armed forces. They have taken place at least once a decade since the 1957 Sandys Review.

Before the present government came into office, the most recent was the Integrated Review 2021, which was updated in 2023 as the Integrated Review Refresh 2023 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Under the refreshed review, defence funding in the UK increased by an additional £5 billion over two years.

Labour’s first year of government began on 5 July 2024 but the wording of the pledge did not make it entirely clear whether “conduct” the review meant it would begin, take place or be completed by 5 July 2025. But when Full Fact asked the Ministry of Defence about this in October 2024, it told us “the document will be published with the recommendations in the first half of next year”.

What progress has been made?

We are rating this pledge as “achieved”, after the publication of the Strategic Defence Review (SDR) on 2 June 2025.

This review, announced by the government on 16 July 2024, was led by former defence secretary and NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, and headed by two other “external Reviewers”—General Sir Richard Barrons and Dr Fiona Hill.

The review made 62 recommendations. These include making “no further reduction in the number of Regulars” across the Army, Navy and Royal Air Force, a 20% increase in the number of active reservists “when funding allows”, and the expansion of “in-school and community-based Cadet Forces across the country by 30% by 2030”.

The review also recommended that ministers should start to set out in this parliament the requirements for the replacement of the UK’s Dreadnought-class of nuclear deterrence submarines once they reach their intended end-of-service dates by the mid-2050s, and establish a new “CyberEM Command” by the end of 2025 to bring together military capability “across cyberspace and the electromagnetic spectrum”.

Defence secretary John Healey told the House of Commons that the government has accepted and would implement all 62 recommendations.

In response to the review, the government said it would expand the AUKUS programme by building “up to” 12 attack submarines, though it’s not clear how many were planned already. There will also be a minimum of six new munitions and energetics factories, along with a £15 billion investment in the UK’s nuclear warhead programme over the course of the parliament.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the review set out “three fundamental changes” in UK defence. These were to move the UK to “war-fighting readiness”, bolster “the strength of NATO” and “accelerate” innovations in defence at a “war-time pace”.

However, in response to questions from journalists during a press conference to launch the review, Mr Starmer declined to set out a specific timeframe by which the government intends to increase defence spending to 3% of GDP, beyond stating an ambition to achieve this “in the next parliament”.

The Prime Minister had earlier told the BBC’s Today programme: “I am not, as the Prime Minister of a Labour government, going to make a commitment as to the precise date until I can be sure precisely where the money is coming from.”

We separately assess the government’s progress on its pre-existing commitment to spend 2.5% of GDP on defence by April 2027 here.