{"id":7599,"date":"2026-06-30T16:35:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T16:35:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/06\/30\/uks-starmer-announces-300-billion-pound-defence-investment-plan\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T16:35:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T16:35:25","slug":"uks-starmer-announces-300-billion-pound-defence-investment-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/06\/30\/uks-starmer-announces-300-billion-pound-defence-investment-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"UK\u2019s Starmer announces 300-billion-pound defence investment plan"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>Plan includes more than 5 billion pounds for drones and autonomous systems over four years, Ministry of Defence says.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>Outgoing 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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/opinions\/2026\/6\/30\/the-next-british-pm-should-steer-clear-of-starmers-shameful-legacy\">The next British PM should steer clear of Starmer\u2019s shameful legacy<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/6\/25\/iran-accuses-nato-of-complicity-in-us-war-what-role-did-eu-nations-play\">Iran accuses NATO of \u2018complicity\u2019 in US war: What role did EU nations play?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/6\/29\/burnham-pledges-devolution-and-discipline-if-he-becomes-uk-prime-minister\">Burnham pledges devolution and discipline if he becomes UK prime minister<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>\u201cLast 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,\u201d Starmer said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat was the right choice because the world has changed. National security is economic security.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday we uplift defence spending further \u2013 an additional 15 billion pounds worth of funding \u2013 by \u2026 reprioritising spending across government.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The plan includes more than 5 billion pounds ($6.6bn) for drones and autonomous systems over the next four years, the Ministry of Defence said in a news release.<\/p>\n<p>The announcement followed months of wrangling within Starmer\u2019s Labour government over the resources required to modernise the United Kingdom\u2019s armed forces in the face of rising threats, including from Russia.<\/p>\n<p>Two defence ministers quit this month in a row over the spending proposals, including Defence Secretary John Healey, who said the plans risked making Britain \u201cless safe\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Starmer\u2019s pledge came as United States President Donald Trump has repeatedly urged NATO allies to spend more on defence and become less reliant on Washington for security.<\/p>\n<p>Starmer will take the plan, which foresees spending nearly 80 billion pounds ($105.7bn) a year by 2029, to Ankara for a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/6\/24\/top-european-leaders-vow-strong-support-for-ukraine-ahead-of-nato-summit\">NATO summit on July 7-8<\/a>. He wants to signal Britain is on track to spend 3.5 percent of its gross domestic product on defence by 2035.<\/p>\n<p>With likely successor Andy Burnham due to take power as early as July 20, Starmer acknowledged new governments could \u201cbuild\u201d on his blueprint.<\/p>\n<p>Critics said the plan, delayed for more than nine months, was too little, too late.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Plan includes more than 5 billion pounds for drones and autonomous systems over four years, Ministry of Defence says. Outgoing 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 &#8230; <a title=\"UK\u2019s Starmer announces 300-billion-pound defence investment plan\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/06\/30\/uks-starmer-announces-300-billion-pound-defence-investment-plan\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about UK\u2019s Starmer announces 300-billion-pound defence investment plan\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}