There are less than three weeks to go until the UK goes to the polls on Thursday 4 July, and this week parties have started to publish their manifestoes – setting out their vision for the next five years.
Many of the commitments have been trailed well in advance of the announcements, so it is no surprise that the three main parties have all made commitments to increasing military spending:
The Conservative manifesto commits to “Boost defence spending to our new NATO standard of 2.5% of GDP by 2030”. There have been calls from some in the Conservative party to go further and pledge to reach 3% of GDP before the end of the next Parliament.
Labour has been slightly more cautious on making specific commitments, but the manifesto promises to “conduct a Strategic Defence Review within the first year of our government, and we will set out the path to spending 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence”.
The Liberal Democrat manifesto commits the party to “increasing defence spending in every year of the Parliament, with an ambition to spend at least 2.5% of GDP on defence.”
Reform UK have pledged to take military spending to 2.5% of GDP by the third year of the parliament and gone further by pledging to spend 3% by year six of an administration. There would need to be a further General Election before then.
Not all parties have made these commitments, however. The Green Party and Workers Party of Britain make no reference to plans for military spending in their manifesto and Plaid Cymru go further – stating “we oppose increasing defence spending’. The Scottish National Party don’t make explicit pledges on spending figures, but do say they will “scrap Trident and invest the money into conventional defences and public services”.
Further manifestos will be published in due course and we will update once they are.
Many constituencies will also have various other candidates standing including independents. Find out who is standing in your constituency.
