Starmer retains tax option to fund defence spending

Sir Keir Starmer has left the door open for tax rises in order to pay for mammoth increases to defence spending, amid growing questions over how the UK will afford the £30bn pledge.

- MILLIE COOKE

Yesterday, Britain joined its Nato allies in committing to spending 5 per cent of GDP on defence and related spending by 2035.

But Institute of Fiscal Studies director Paul Johnson warned that the planned increase in defence spending would cost more than £30bn a sum that he said could only come from tax increases, "because in the end there's nowhere else it can come from".

Just three weeks ago, ministers struggled to explain how Britain would reach a target of 3 per cent defence spending by 2034 casting doubt over the fresh target of 5 per cent.

Speaking to journalists on the plane to the Nato summit in The Hague, the prime minister pointed to current manifesto commitments which commit the government to no tax rises for working people.

But any tax hikes to fund the 2035 pledge are likely to come after the next election in 2029, which will see Labour campaign on an entirely separate manifesto, meaning current manifesto commitments will no longer apply.