Healey asked seven times if UK would spend more than 2.5% on defence – each time he stuck to script
Donald Trump has said NATO allies should be spending 5% of national income on
their armed forces – and the UK currently invests less than half of that.
Security and Defence Editor @haynesdeborah [http://twitter.com/@haynesdeborah]
Wednesday 12 February 2025 20:35, UK
The UK defence secretary repeatedly swerved questions on whether Britain should
heed calls from the United States to significantly ramp up defence spending.
John Healey [https://news.sky.com/topic/john-healey-11218] also failed to
guarantee that the UK armed forces would not face further cuts if the government
merely sticks to a pledge to inch up the amount of money invested in the
military to 2.5% of GDP from around 2.3%.
Donald Trump [https://news.sky.com/topic/donald-trump-5711] has said NATO allies
should be spending 5% of national income on their armed forces, while the new
head of the alliance has said the level should be “north of 3%”.
Ukraine latest: Follow updates as Trump invites Putin to US
[https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-russia-war-latest-putin-trump-moscow-zelenskyy-kremlin-live-sky-news-latest-12541713]
In an interview on Wednesday, Sky News asked Mr Healey seven times whether the
UK would or should increase defence spending beyond 2.5%.
Each time, he stuck to the official line.
“Everyone accepts that we need to spend more on defence,” Mr Healey said,
speaking at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, where he chaired a
meeting on supporting Ukraine [https://news.sky.com/topic/ukraine-6556].
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Defence cuts provide a sense of where Labour’s priorities lie
“We are a government that was elected just last year with a commitment to
increase UK defence spending to 2.5% of GDP – that’s a level we have not spent
in the UK since 2010 when Labour was last in government.”
Pressed on whether this was enough given there is now a war in Europe, the
defence secretary pointed to how all European nations are expanding their
defence expenditure as well as their support to Ukraine.
He was speaking as the UK finalises a strategic defence review, which the
government has promised to release in the first half of this year.
More from Sky News:
Zelenskyy makes Trump an offer
[https://news.sky.com/story/lets-do-a-deal-zelenskyy-touts-ukraines-rare-earth-stores-to-trump-13304934]
US defence sec signals policy shift
[https://news.sky.com/story/us-troops-will-not-be-used-to-secure-ukraine-peace-following-ceasefire-deal-with-putin-trumps-defence-secretary-tells-allies-13307774]
Yet the calculations about defence capabilities and cuts differ wildly depending
on the size of the budget.
The work was ordered to deliver answers for a defence budget that will increase
to 2.5% during the course of the parliament – even though the government has yet
to commit to a timeline.
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However, defence insiders widely acknowledge this is nowhere near enough given
the size of the threat and the need for the UK and European allies to take on
more of the burden of securing Europe, as the United States under Mr Trump
shifts attention elsewhere
[https://news.sky.com/story/us-defence-secretary-signals-dramatic-shift-in-american-military-policy-away-from-europe-warning-allies-about-stark-strategic-realities-13307774].
Mr Healey brushed off concerns that the UK’s relationship with the US might be
damaged if it fails to boost the defence budget to a level closer to Mr Trump’s
demands.
“I’m deeply confident in our relationship with the US,” he said. “We have a
security relationship which we do unique things that nobody else does together.
We will deepen that, we will strengthen that.”
