(Bloomberg) — The UK cannot afford to fulfill its defense commitments despite a recent spending uplift, the head of the UK’s armed forces warned, weeks after telling Prime Minister Keir Starmer that he’s preparing for spending cuts due to a multibillion-pound shortfall.
The government’s decision to boost defense spending to 2.6% of economic output by 2027 from 2.3% in 2024 is not enough for the Ministry of Defence to deliver its current equipment plan alongside making fresh investments promised under last year’s defense review, Chief of the Defence Staff Richard Knighton told Parliament’s defense committee on Monday.
His comments come days after reports that the department is short by £28 billion ($38 billion) over the next four years. Knighton refused to confirm that figure, but did say that he met Starmer last month to discuss the delayed defense investment plan.
“We can’t do everything we would want to do as quickly as we would want to do it within the context of the budget we’ve set, and that requires ministers to make difficult trade-offs,” Knighton said when asked about the shortfall. Those trade-offs could include reducing the department’s financial contingency, delaying certain programs and scaling back the government’s defense ambitions, he said.
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The Treasury and the MoD are locked in negotiations to address a budget overspend that the department is forecast to make this financial year if such changes aren’t made, he said. The department is also in the midst of reducing its staffing headcount by 10%.
“We do not have enough money to do everything that is currently planned,” he said. “We are not as ready as we need to be for the kind of full-scale conflict that we might face.”
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The UK’s long-term defense investment plan — which will detail how the defense ministry will allocate its funding — was due by December but has now been delayed by what could be several months over concerns about how it is funded. Knighton said no date has yet been set for the plan to be published.
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