The UK spends 2.5% of GDP on defence.
This isn’t correct. The most recent estimate is that the UK spent about 2.1% of GDP on defence in 2023. Defence secretary Grant Shapps has said the 2.5% target set by the Conservative government has not yet been reached.
An article featured on the front page of the Daily Telegraph claims that the “UK spends 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence”.
The statistic was included in a story in the print edition of the paper on 24 January, under the headline: “Army chief: Public face call-up if UK goes to war”.
But the figure of 2.5% is incorrect.
NATO estimates that in 2023 the UK’s defence spending was 2.07% of its GDP (the total value of everything that happens within the country’s economy). The UK spent £52.8 billion on defence in the 2022/23 financial year.
In 2022, NATO estimated that the UK spent 2.16% of GDP on defence.
The online version of the Daily Telegraph article published on 23 January also incorrectly stated that the UK spends 2.5% of GDP on defence, but after Full Fact got in touch, this was corrected to say it “aspires” to this figure.
The UK, along with other members of NATO, is committed to meeting a 2% GDP spending target on defence each year.
However, the Conservative government has pledged to increase spending to 2.5%, with former Prime Minister Boris Johnson telling a NATO summit in 2022 that this would be achieved by the end of the decade.
As part of the Integrated Review Refresh 2023, which updated the government’s security, defence, development and foreign policy priorities, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak similarly set out a longer term ambition to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP. However, no timeframe was given for achieving this goal, only to do it “as the fiscal and economic circumstances allow”.
On 15 January this year, in a speech at Lancaster House, defence secretary Grant Shapps said the government had made the “critical decision” to set out an aspiration to reach “2.5% of GDP spent on defence”.
Speaking on Sky News on 21 January he told Trevor Phillips: “We’re not at 2.5% yet, we’re comfortably above 2%.
“We are pledged to, when conditions allow, get to 2.5%.”
We’ve contacted the Daily Telegraph for comment and will update this article if we receive a response.
Newspapers should make every effort to achieve due accuracy in all output. False or misleading claims should be appropriately and clearly corrected in a timely manner.
Image courtesy of U.S Army Europe
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