LIVE: Starmer Launches Strategic Defence Review

Keir Starmer is in Scotland today to launch the government’s Strategic Defence Review. This morning Starmer refused to provide a date on which the UK will spend 3% of GDP on defence. A rollback on Healey’s strident commitment to achieve that by 2034…

The authors of the SDR made it clear that the timescale of defence spending played an important part of the review:

“The Government’s important decision to raise defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027/28 and, vitally, to 3% in the next Parliament made an enormous difference.