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Sir Keir Starmer has bowed to pressure from Donald Trump to boost defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by slashing foreign aid.
The announcement came just 24 hours before Sir Keir flies to Washington DC for his first meeting with the US president since the inauguration last month.
It comes at a time when the White House is piling pressure on European allies in Nato to massively increase their own share of the cost of defence as Trump appears to be on the verge of turning his back on Ukraine.
The announcement to a stunned parliament has been condemned by senior Labour figures including former foreign secretary David Miliband and aid charities who have accused Starmer of “abandoning the poorest in the world”.
Sir Keir told a press conference in Downing Street that the decision had been “three years in the making” since the full scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, describing his decision as “a generational moment”.
Challenged on whether he had been bounced by Trump into the decision, Starmer said: “Well, this is a significant moment, and that is why we’ve got to rise this generational challenge. It is a moment where we have to fight for peace through the reaction that we take and in relation to your question at the time, I think in our heart of hearts, we’ve all known that this decision has been coming for three years since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine.
“The last few weeks have accelerated my thinking on when we need to make this announcement, and I’ll be very clear about it, because it is absolutely clear to me now that the decision that, as it were, started life three years ago, needs to be taken now.”
The prime minister is set to meet with other European leaders this weekend in London to discuss Europe’s defence strategy going forward, having been briefed by French president Emmanuel Macron about his visit to the White House earlier this week.
The announcement to slash the foreign aid budget in order to hike defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP to counter “tyrants” like Vladimir Putin, was praised by Trump’s US defense secretary Pete Hegseth.
And it appears to be yet another foreign policy victory for a US administration which has bullied allies and opponents alike into making dramatic policy changes.
Sir Keir had previously refused to give a timetable for reaching 2.5 per cent of GDP for defence and had been understood to want to delay it until after the next election. Now he aims to get to 3 per cent.
Sir Keir will hope the spending boost, which he said will mean an extra £13.4 billion for defence every year from 2027, will placate Mr Trump, who wants Europe to be less reliant on the US for support.
But the move has sparked a furious row over the prime minister’s decision to reduce foreign aid spending, while the Tories slammed the 2.5 per cent figure as “no longer sufficient” to deal with the threats the UK faces.
Former Labour foreign secretary David Miliband, who is now the president of the International Rescue Committee, said the cut to aid funding was a “blow to Britain’s proud reputation as a global humanitarian and development leader”.
And Sarah Champion, the Labour chair of the Commons International Development Committee, also told The Independent the PM should rethink the decision.
The prime minister told MPs he would fund the rise in defence spending by cutting funding for overseas aid from 0.5 per cent of national income to 0.3 per cent by 2027.
The move, which Sir Keir told MPs he was not “happy” with, will allow him to meet the defence spending target by the same year, he said, as he also unveiled a new target to spend 3 per cent of GDP by 2034.
And he pledged a “new alliance” with Europe, five years on from Brexit, saying now was the time to “deepen” the UK’s commitment to European defence and security.
Former Conservative defence secretary Ben Wallace hit out at Sir Keir’s announcement, describing it as a “staggering desertion of leadership”.
Oxfam said the cuts amounted “to a betrayal of the world’s most vulnerable people”, “make a mockery” of the government’s manifesto commitments and were “bending to populist pressures may seem easy”.
UN agency UNICEF said it was “deeply concerned” by the move, Sky News reported.
Reducing the UK Aid budget was a “cruel betrayal” of people in poverty, the charity WaterAid said.
Hannah Bond, co-CEO of ActionAid UK, said: “We are profoundly shocked and disappointed that the government has made (this) reckless decision”.
Former deputy foreign secretary Andrew Mitchell also suggested the PM was “balancing the books on the backs of the poorest people in the world”.
Ms Champion said: “Aid and defence are linked, but they build upon each other to keep everyone safe. Cutting one to fund the other will have dire consequences for us all as it will make the world less stable.”
Former Green MP Caroline Lucas said the decision was “utterly shameful – a sickening betrayal of some of the poorest people.”
Labour MP David Taylor, who founded the Labour Campaign for International Development, told The Independent Ukrainian MPs, ministers and frontline troops were clear they needed more support from the UK, backing the PM’s decision to boost defence spending.
But he added: “I am pained to see the aid budget cut, and those of other countries around the world.”
But he has faced mounting calls for action in recent days from NATO leaders and senior military figures, as well as Mr Trump.
As she gave a speech on foreign affairs in central London on Tuesday, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch described 2.5 per cent as “now no longer sufficient”.
She also backed diverting money currently spent on foreign aid to defence.
Economists at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the increase in defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP will cost the Treasury around 6 billion, accusing the PM of misleading voters with his claim it amounts to a £13 billion pound annual boost. The think tank also warned chancellor Rachel Reeves might have to break pre-existing tax and spend promises to meet the PM’s longer-term 3 per cent spending target.
IFS associate director Ben Zaranko said: “Getting towards 3 per cent of GDP will eventually mean more tough choices and sacrifices elsewhere – whether higher taxes, or cuts to other bits of government.”
