Our sights on 5% of GDP for defence spend, admits Healey

John Healey has indicated that the UK could agree a fresh target to spend 5% of GDP on defence, saying "we are up for that discussion".

- Catherine Neilan Whitehall Editor

Britain faces renewed pressure to increase its commitment to defence, with talks last week that agreed new military capabilities for each Nato member and further discussions at the end of June month to thrash out spending. The defence secretary told The Observer: “There were discussions at Nato [last] week about 5% on national defence and resilience and, of course, we are up for that discussion.

“President Trump and the US are right to push Nato allies to do more. We've long said European nations need to do more of the heavy lifting. And at the defence ministers’ meeting on Thursday you saw everyone stepping up... we'll go as far as we need to ensure the British people are safe.”