What was claimed
The government is spending an extra £270 billion on defence in this parliament.
Our verdict
Incorrect. This figure refers to the Ministry of Defence’s total budget between 2025/26 and 2028/29, as outlined in the Spending Review (although an increase to this figure has now been announced). This figure does not refer to the year-on-year increases in the MoD’s budget.
In recent days, we’ve seen people claiming again that the government is spending “an extra £270 billion” on defence over this parliament.
The claim has appeared in some news outlets, where it was attributed to a government spokesperson.
But this isn’t right.
As we explained earlier this year after seeing the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer say something similar, £270 billion was roughly the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) total projected spend for the years 2025/26 to 2028/29. It doesn’t represent the combined extra spending over this period.
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Defence minister Luke Pollard confirmed this in February, when he said £270 billion “is the total of the Ministry of Defence’s budget from financial year 2025/26 to 2028/29”. Adding together the MoD’s planned spends, as outlined in last year’s Spending Review, for each of these years gives a figure of £272.2 billion.
It’s worth noting that on 30 June 2026 Mr Starmer announced a £15 billion increase to defence spending over the next four years (up to 2029/30). £11 billion of this £15 billion is the new increase in spending between 2026/27 and 2028/29, so this raises the original figure of £270 billion.
We’ve asked both Number 10 and the MoD about this claim and will update this article if we receive a response.
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