From Warsaw, Tuesday April 23, flanked by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, the head of the British government Rishi Sunak announced a significant increase in the United Kingdom’s military spending. They will increase to 2.5% of gross domestic product by 2030, compared to the current 2.3%, which will represent, according to Downing Street, a financial contribution of 75 billion pounds sterling (87 billion euros) to six years in the country’s armed forces. This is the largest injection of additional funds for British national defense since in 2020, Boris Johnson decided on a budgetary contribution of 16 billion additional pounds over four years.
This financial windfall, “the most important in a generation” constitutes “an inflection point”the world having become “much more dangerous” and the United Kingdom must now be “on a war footing”, insisted the British Prime Minister from Berlin, Wednesday April 24, where he held a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Rishi Sunak also announced an additional £500 million in military aid for Ukraine (including 400 vehicles and 1,600 missiles), bringing UK support to kyiv to £3 billion in the 2023 financial year. 2024. “The United Kingdom and Germany are the two European countries that have supported Ukraine the most,” boasted Mr Sunak from Berlin.
The commitment to increase military spending to 2.5% of British GDP is not new: Boris Johnson had already made it in 2022, before being chased out of Downing Street. Rishi Sunak was careful not to reiterate this when coming to power at the end of 2022. His priority, at the time, was to stabilize public finances and calm the financial markets, after the disastrous mandate of Liz Truss. But in recent weeks, pressure has intensified on the Prime Minister to follow through on his predecessor’s promise.
Ben Wallace, former Minister of Defense under Boris Johnson, James Heappey, Secretary of State for the Army (resigned) and Mark François, an influential Tory member of the parliamentary defense committee, have called for more resources for the Royal Navy, the Royal Air Force and especially the British Army, the army, the force having suffered the most significant budget cuts since the 2000s. With armed forces engaged in the Red Sea and very mobilized in Cyprus since the October 7, 2023, the tension between the United Kingdom’s military ambitions and the human and material capabilities of its defense have become blatant. Patrick Sanders, the Chief of Staff of the Army, even suggested, at the beginning of 2024, a return to conscription, abolished in 1960, to replenish an Army which could fall below 70,000 soldiers by to 2026, as its recruitment problems are significant.
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