Northern Isles MP responds to defence spending increase

Orkney and Shetland MP, Alistair Carmichael, has today responded to the announcement that the UK will increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027. 

Defence spending is currently equal to 2.3% of GDP. In announcing the funding increase, the Prime Minister Keir Starmer stated that international aid spending will fall from 0.5% of national income to 0.3%. The Prime Minster also announced that the UK will increase defence spending to 3% of its GDP in the next parliament.

Reacting to the news, Mr Carmichael said:

“The news today that the government will accelerate an increase in defence spending to 2.5% by 2027 is welcome but there is still far more that we need to do. We need to see a more ambitious plan to get to 3% defence spending and indeed beyond. We are playing catchup here but the time in which we can catch up is limited.

“I am disappointed that the government has chosen to cut the international development budget as part of this announcement. Ultimately this is a false economy as it cedes an important role the UK has played to other countries like China. International development is a moral good but it is also sound strategic sense, just as much as investment in defence.”

He added:

“The Northern Isles have always been of enormous strategic importance to the UK, in terms of energy development, military reach in the High North, and more recently in the establishment of the Saxavord spaceport in Shetland. That spaceport of course is built on the site of RAF Saxa Vord, which was downgraded and de-garrisoned in 2006 on the basis of a ‘reduced threat’ from Russia. If there is to be increased investment in defence then I hope that re-investment in our capabilities in the High North – whatever shape that may take – will also be under consideration when the Strategic Defence Review reports in the spring.”