UK PM Starmer Pledges Accelerated Defence Investment and Reform in Coming Weeks

Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged the government will set out how it intends to go further and faster on defence in the coming weeks, in an essay published on his personal Substack that described the current moment as one that will "shape our future for generations."

Starmer said the UK faces "a war on two fronts, in Ukraine and in the Middle East, a fractured world, more dangerous than at any point in my lifetime." He said the government was delivering "the biggest sustained investment in British defence since the Cold War" and in the coming weeks would set out how it would "go further and faster" with "radical change to meet a radically changed world."

That would include "working more closely with our partners to strengthen the European element of NATO" and building "the formidable productive power and innovative strength that we need," Starmer wrote. British companies, he noted, already account for over a quarter of Europe's defence industrial base, calling them "a job-creating, community-building machine" and setting out an ambition to "build a shared industrial base across our continent, with British industry at the heart."

Starmer confirmed the government had "brought dozens of countries together to launch a multinational military mission" in the Strait of Hormuz, together with France and other partners, to "give reassurance, prevent escalation, and protect the foundations of our economy" when conditions allow ships to move again through the strait. On the domestic front, he said the government was reviewing whether the powers available to law enforcement are adequate for the threats the country faces, and that resources were being surged into policing. He committed to rolling out "a new agenda of radical reform" through the King's Speech and beyond.

The pledges come amid industry frustration over a delayed Defence Investment Plan. Senior figures from across the defence sector warned MPs that the delay was creating a state of paralysis, with some small and medium-sized enterprises exiting the sector entirely and others unable to make long-term decisions on hiring, production capacity and capital spending. Lord Robertson, who led the government's Strategic Defence Review, accused the government in April of showing "corrosive complacency" towards defence spending.