- UK to publish landmark National Security Strategy, to make the UK more secure in an era of radical uncertainty.
- Comes as the Prime Minister announces that the UK expects to spend 5% of GDP on national security by the parliament after next.
- Historic 5% commitment will be made up of both defence spending, wider homeland security and national resilience.
- Report says it takes a whole of society approach to strengthen national security, creating jobs and opportunities for British people.
Working people will be more secure as the Prime Minister will make a historic commitment today at the NATO Summit (Tuesday 24 June) to spend 5% of GDP on national security.
This pledge to meet the NATO commitment on 5% comes as the government today publishes its National Security Strategy, drawing together all of the security work that has taken place since the General Election, with the relentless pursuit of British interests as its founding principle.
Marking a step change with the approach of previous governments, the National Security Strategy directly answers to the concerns of working people, aligning our national security objectives and plans for economic growth in a way not seen since 1945.
This will increase investment in security, defence and resilience, delivering jobs, wages and growth for the British people to raise living standards and put more money in working people’s pockets.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said
We must navigate this era of radical uncertainty with agility, speed and a clear-eyed sense of the national interest to deliver security for working people and keep them safe.
That’s why I have made the commitment to spend 5% of GDP on national security. This is an opportunity to deepen our commitment to NATO and drive greater investment in the nation’s wider security and resilience.
After all, economic security is national security, and through this strategy we will bring the whole of society with us, creating jobs, growth and wages for working people – guided by my Plan for Change.
The UK has long argued that investment in things like energy security and tackling smuggling gangs is vital to national security. That is reflected in the National Security Strategy and the Spending Review and is now expected to be recognised by NATO.
With the new 5% commitment on national security, the UK expects a projected split of 3.5% (core defence) and 1.5% (resilience and security) to be agreed at the NATO summit, with a target date of 2035.
Under NATO’s new estimate, the UK expects to reach at least 4.1% of GDP in 2027. All Allies will review the trajectory and the balance of spend between defence and wider national resilience in 2029, when NATO next reviews its capability plans.
The National Security Strategy, with support from academics and other technical experts, reaffirms that the UK must become more competitive and robust in crucial areas like science, education, trade and frontier technology – or risk falling behind.
In a more transactional world, the report determines that building our own sovereign, independent capabilities in strategically important areas will reduce our dependency on other nations, support British businesses to grow and shield the British public from strong headwinds in the global economy.
As this government has said before, the benefits of our increased investment in defence will be felt directly in the pockets of working people. This will extend to good, stable work in communities across the country – from doubling the number of apprentices and creating 9,500 jobs Berkshire by investing £15 billion in our sovereign warhead programme, to delivering 200 new jobs in BAE Systems’ new artillery factory in Sheffield or supporting 800 defence jobs across the country to build up to 7,000 long range missiles for our Armed Forces.
Drawing our priorities to make the UK more secure and economically prosperous further together, the government’s Industrial Strategy will also invest £86 billion in research and development to drive growth in technologies that will underpin our future economic and military competitiveness.
The National Security Strategy is also a call to action that our entire society needs to become more resilient, recognising that national security means more than it used to – from the security of our borders to the health of our economy, from supply chains to food prices and from safety on our streets to the online world.
Faced by this reality in a world of increasing ‘grey zone’ threats, we cannot take a piecemeal approach that enhances the security of one part of our critical national infrastructure but leaves gaps elsewhere for our adversaries to exploit. This requires us to fortify in the round our economy, industry, digital communications and transport and energy networks against cyber-attacks and sabotage that we have seen launched against our public services and businesses, causing uncertainty and inconvenience for working people.
So, by stepping up we will meet the threats we face, following the clear objectives defined in the National Security Strategy to make every part of the UK more secure and resilient. We will become more unapologetic and systematic in pursuit of our national interests – delivering security for the British people.
The National Security Strategy brings together
- Strategic Defence Review
- Strategic Security Review
- AUKUS Review
- Resilience Strategy
- China Audit
- Industrial and Trade Strategies
