UK’s Starmer unveils $20 billion defense boost in long-delayed investment plan
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LONDON — Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged on Tuesday to spend an extra £15 billion ($20 billion) to modernize Britain’s depleted armed forces in a long-delayed investment plan that is designed to prepare for the wars of the future and mark his legacy.In what is most likely his last major policy announcement, Starmer said the increased spending over the next four years went further than a previous draft that prompted his ally, John Healey, to resign as defense minister in June. Healey had accused Starmer of failing to secure enough money to keep Britain safe.Starmer’s Defence Investment Plan falls short of the £28 billion wanted by defense chiefs and represents a 5% increase in annual defense spending, which will reach £79 billion a year by 2029. He will take it to Ankara for a NATO meeting on July 7 to 8, where he will want to signal that Britain is on the path to meet its commitment to reach defense spending of 3.5% of GDP by 2035.But with his expected successor, Andy Burnham, due to take power as soon as July 20, he acknowledged that new governments could “build” on his blueprint.Some critics said the plan, delayed for more than nine months, was too little, too late, and a government document published after the speech showed the exact source of almost one-third of the extra funding was not defined and would have to be found by Starmer’s successor at the 2026 budget.Plan will ‘strengthen Britain’s defense’“When the world is arming and aggression is rising, the best way to avoid war is to prepare for it, the best way to defend is to deter — to have the strength to make your adversaries to think again before they act,” Starmer told an audience at a defense company in southern England.Starmer said his blueprint would offer funding of £5 billion for investment in drones and autonomous weapons, create a hybrid navy and make the army more lethal, as part of a plan to make Britain war-ready, especially when military officials have warned that Russia could attack a NAT