The British Foreign Secretary David Lammy has said NATO members must “get serious” to increase their defence spending as we are living “in dangerous times.”
Ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House on 20 January 2025 Lammy urged members to raise their defence spending.
This comes as the President-elect has slammed European members for being reliant on the US and American money for their security.
The Foreign Secretary said, “the time to act is now,” however, Sir Keir Starmer and the Chancellor have not revealed any plans for the UK to raise their defence spending,
Last month the Defence Secretary John Healey announced £500 billion in budget cuts to the UK’s Armed Forces.
During a meeting with NATO’s Foreign Ministers in Brussels Lammy said, “We’re living in very dangerous times, and as we look across the world, with war here on our continent in Europe, with the tremendous aggression that we’re seeing across the Middle East, with the hand of Iran so present in the Middle East and with this rising conflict in Sudan and now in Syria, there is one country whose hand is in so much of it, and that is Russia.
“And that is why, as we meet here discussing these important issues, it’s hugely important that we step up defence spending, across NATO allies particularly.
“In the United Kingdom, we are at 2.3%, heading to 2.5% as soon as we can get there, and we urge all allies across the NATO family to get serious about defence spending.
“All of our populations require us to understand the tremendous security challenges that we are facing at this time, the time to act is now.”
