UK’s Starmer announces 300-billion-pound defence investment plan
Key takeaways
- Plan includes more than 5 billion pounds for drones and autonomous systems over four years, Ministry of Defence says.
- “Last year I made the decision in the national interest to reprioritise aid spending towards defence and achieved the biggest uplift in defence spending since the end of the Cold War,” Starmer said.
- “That was the right choice because the world has changed.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
Plan includes more than 5 billion pounds for drones and autonomous systems over four years, Ministry of Defence says.
xwhatsapp-strokecopylinkgoogle Add Al Jazeera on Googleinfo British Prime Minister Keir Starmer presented the defence spending plan before he is expected to leave office in July [File: Stringer/AFP]By AFP and Reuters Published On 30 Jun 202630 Jun 2026Outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced that Britain will spend almost 300 billion pounds ($397bn) over the next four years to modernise its armed forces amid rising threats.
Starmer, expected to leave office next month after losing the support of Labour MPs, announced on Tuesday that the overall defence budget would increase by 15 billion pounds ($20bn) over the next four years to almost 300 billion pounds as he launched his long-awaited defence investment plan.