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Why the rise in defence spending doesn't add up
The Independent
|February 27, 2025
At Prime Minister's Questions, Keir Starmer repeated his claim that the increase in defence spending he announced on Tuesday will amount to £13.4bn a year.
He was asked by Kemi Badenoch to explain how he arrived at that figure when the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) says the increase is £6bn a year in real terms – a figure John Healey, the defence secretary, has accepted.
As Badenoch pointed out, the IFS has said the government is playing “silly games” with numbers.
Starmer said: “If you take the numbers for this financial year and the numbers for the ’27-28 financial year, there is a £13.4bn increase.” He offered no further information, and neither did his spokesperson afterwards, so we – and the IFS – cannot be sure how he arrived at this figure.
What are the possible explanations?
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