Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department to ensure that 5% of GDP is spent on defence before 2035.

This question was answered on 16th September 2025
At the Spending Review, we set budgets taking ‘core’ defence spending to 2.6% by 2027; next Parliament we have an ambition to reach 3% when fiscal and economic conditions allow.

Additionally, under the new NATO Defence Investment Pledge, the government has committed to hitting a headline ambition of 5% of GDP in the Parliament after next (2035-36). The 5% will be split into 1.5% of defence and security related spending and 3.5% of core defence spending with the overall ambition, trajectory and split to be reviewed in 2029.

We will set out our plans for the next spending review period at Spending Review 2027.