What’s happened to UK defence spending and plans to hit the Nato target?published at 17:13 BST
17:13 BST
By Adam Durbin and Anthony Reuben
The government has previously hailed its plans as “the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War”. However, military expenditure has been on an almost constant downward trajectory since the fall of the Berlin Wall.
In April, former Nato secretary general Lord Robertson, who helped author last year’s Strategic Defence Review, criticised the level of defence expenditure when compared with welfare spending.
The UK’s working-age benefits bill was lower than for defence in the mid-1980s, but since 1990 welfare spending has been higher – often significantly so.
Working-age benefit spend is projected to rise to around 4.3% of GDP by the end of the decade, compared with the government’s , external“ambition” to hit 3% on defence in the next parliament.
But it’s important to note the government has also committed to a Nato target to spend 5% on “national security” by 2035 – due to be made up of 3.5% on “core defence” and 1.5% on things like protecting critical infrastructure.
Only three countries – Poland, Lithuania and Latvia – spent more than 3.5% of their GDP on defence in 2025, with Estonia and Norway close to that level.
The UK spent 2.3% of GDP on defence in 2025 which put it just above average for Nato members, according to figures from the military alliance.