Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox
Get our free View from Westminster email
Get our free View from Westminster email
Europe must follow Britain’s lead and “step up” defence spending to meet the needs of European security, chancellor Rachel Reeves warned.
Ms Reeves warned of a “generational moment” for Europe and said “all of us must step up and do more on defence”.
It comes after prime minister Sir Keir Starmer said Britain would hike defence spending to 2.5 per cent by 2027 with a further “ambition” to hit 3 per cent by the early 2030s.
“We are now facing another moment of change. A change that is happening before our eyes,” Ms Reeves wrote in the Daily Telegraph. “All of us must step up and do more on defence”.
European countries including France and Germany have signalled a need to increase defence spending, but details of how and when this will happen have been vague.
Sir Keir acknowledged his plans were accelerated by US president Donald Trump’s criticism of Ukraine and threats to withdraw security guarantees from Europe.
He is set to fly to Washington DC on Wednesday where he will meet with Mr Trump where he will follow in French president Emmanuel Macron’s footsteps to persuade him Europe has a plan for Ukraine.
Starmer to meet Trump in Washington
Sir Keir Starmer will fly to the United States on Wednesday ahead of crunch talks with Donald Trump, as the chancellor urged European allies to follow the UK in raising defence spending.
The prime minister will travel to Washington DC after facing his weekly grilling in the House of Commons, following his announcement of a dramatic increase in the size of the UK’s war chest, paid for by cutting the international aid budget.
Meanwhile, European nations must “step up and do more on defence”, Rachel Reeves said after the UK pledged to raise defence spending from its current 2.3 per cent to 2.5 per cent of the UK’s economic output by 2027.
Sir Keir will follow French president Emmanuel Macron in visiting Mr Trump in Washington DC and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to visit on Friday.
Source: independent.co.uk
