How much more is being spent on defence and will the UK hit Nato's targets?

Key developments are emerging from the global stage. How much more is being spent on defence and will the UK hit Nato's targets? ByBen Chu, Policy and analysis correspondent, Anthony Reuben and Tom Edgington, VerifyPublished10 minutes agoThe government has published the much-delayed Defence Investment Plan (DIP) and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said the additional spending represents a "huge historic shift for our nation". Verify has been looking at how much extra the government is committing to spend on defence in the coming years - and whether it puts the UK on track to hit its promised commitments.

How much does the UK currently spend on defence? The Ministry of Defence's overall budget for 2026-27 is £68. 3bn, according to the Defence Investment Plan.

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However there is a measure known as Nato-qualifying defence spending which is wider than the MoD's budget, because it includes state spending on things like military pensions. According to this measure the UK's spending was estimated by the military alliance to be £70bn in 2025, equivalent to 2. 4% of the UK's GDP in that year.

What has the government committed to spend? In February 2025 Sir Keir committed to raising Nato-qualifying defence spending to 2. The prime minister also announced that the activities of the UK's security and intelligence agencies would - by 2027 - be classified as Nato-qualifying defence spending.

As a result spending would hit 2. The prime minister also stated a "clear ambition" to increase spending to 3% of GDP "in the next parliament". At a Nato summit in the Hague in June 2025 the UK and other members committed to spend 5% of GDP on defence and security with 3.

What Experts Say

5% going to Nato-qualifying "core defence" by 2035. The alliance's members agreed that the rest of the 5% (1. 5% of GDP) could be made up of spending to "protect critical infrastructure, defend networks, ensure civil preparedness and resilience, innovate, and strengthen the defence industrial base.

"Sir Keir said on Tuesday that the measures in the DIP "takes us to 4. 2% under that commitment". How much extra does the Defence Investment Plan commit to?

When he resigned on 11 June, former Defence Secretary John Healey said that the DIP he had been presented with only committed to take Nato-qualifying defence spending to 2. He said this was insufficient "to defend the country at this time of rising threats" and that the government should be committing 3% of GDP to defence by 2030 - bringing this target forward to the end of this parliament rather than during the next one. The actual DIP says that "based on latest projections" UK defence spending will rise to 2.

The story has become one of the most prominent items on the global agenda.