UK 'dragging feet' over defence funding as Nato chief warns of threat from Russia

Britain has still not committed to saying at the Nato leaders summit this month that it will increase defence spending to 3.5% of GDP by the mid 2030s, in line with a proposal from the alliance secretary general, Mark Rutte, defence sources said yesterday.

- Dan Sabbagh

Britain has still not committed to saying at the Nato leaders summit this month that it will increase defence spending to 3.5% of GDP by the mid-2030s, in line with a proposal from the alliance secretary general, Mark Rutte, defence sources said yesterday.

Though Rutte visited No 10 on Monday and the Nato chief expressed confidence in a speech in London afterwards that countries would sign up, senior insiders complained that Britain was still dragging its heels. One accused No 10 of "having its head in the sand" and said Britain had been caught out by the unexpected willingness of countries such as Italy, Belgium and Canada to sign up.

Rutte's proposal, devised in response to pressure from the US president, Donald Trump, is for Nato allies to agree to dramatically lift core military spending to 3.5% of GDP in the 2030s, with a further 1.5% on cyber and other defence-related budgets.

After meeting the prime minister, Keir Starmer, Rutte said at Chatham House: "I expect allied leaders to agree to spend 5% of GDP on defence," of which 3.5% would be on core military budgets - but he did not say specifically that the UK had agreed to the plan.