Keir Starmer is likely to face a diplomatic row at his final major international summit this week after Washington’s ambassador to Nato called for alliance members who are “lagging behind” on defence spending to step up.
The prime minister is due to arrive in Ankara on Tuesday for the annual Nato summit, where the UK commitment will be under scrutiny following the release of the government’s defence investment plan (Dip) last week.
While this produced an extra £15bn for defence, the increase as a proportion of GDP will rise slowly, going from 2.6%in 2027 to 2.7% by 2030, with the intended “trajectory” to hit 3% in the next parliament.
Under a plan agreed at last year’s Nato summit in The Hague, members agreed to reach at least 3.5% of GDP by 2035, as part of a total of 5% on defence and “defence-and security-related spending”.
On Sunday night, Matt Whitaker, the US ambassador to Nato, said certain Nato members were not moving fast enough: “Some allies are doing more than others. Poland, the Nordic countries, the Baltic countries lead the way.
“But many others are lagging behind, and President Trump expects all allies to step up immediately and not only get on a sustainable path to the 5% but to get to 5% as soon as possible.”
Starmer will know that Whitaker and his US colleagues view the UK as being among the stragglers. There is also uncertainty about what might happen when Andy Burnham, as is likely, takes over as prime minister later this month.
Over the weekend the new defence secretary, Dan Jarvis, who took the post after John Healey quit last month over the Dip, called on Burnham to increase defence spending dramatically from 2030 and “evidence the trajectory” towards the Nato target.
“What I absolutely will want to see is that in the next spending review we commit the resources to evidence the trajectory to 3.5%,” Jarvis said ahead of the Nato summit in Turkey.
Jarvis, who is keen to remain in post, has been in contact with Burnham and his team already to discuss defence priorities and the Dip.
“I’ve known Andy for a very long time and I have not a shred of doubt that as prime minister he will make sure that we’ve got the resources that we need at a point of challenge,” Jarvis said.
It comes after the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said that British F-35 fighter jets were forced to intercept a Russian plane which had flown close to the HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier at low altitude in the Norwegian Sea.
The MoD statement said the UK ship was “was repeatedly approached by a Russian ‘Bear-F’ maritime patrol aircraft”, which dropped sonar devices in the water near the carrier.
It added: “This activity was unsafe and unprofessional. The Russian aircraft was intercepted and escorted by two UK F-35 jets from HMS Prince of Wales until it left the area.”
