Whenever Keir Starmer and his ministers are pressed on the lack of a plan to raise Britain’s defence spending with any speed, they skirt the question with the reply that ‘we are delivering the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War’. But are they actually?

Earlier today, Nato published its general secretary Mark Rutte’s annual report for last year, which outlines the work of the alliance across the globe. Included in it are several tables of figures which set out how much each Nato member is estimated or known to have spent on defence each calendar year going back to 2014. The figures in today’s report have been updated to include the latest estimates for each country for 2025 – both as a percentage of GDP and in real terms.

This places us below the Netherlands, Turkey and Greece in terms of share of GDP

This places us below the Netherlands, Turkey and Greece in terms of share of GDP

The data reveals that........

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