The UK’s Starmer has announced a £300 billion defense plan Government Affairs

The plan includes more than 5 billion pounds of drones and autonomous systems over four years, the Ministry of Defense says.

Outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced that Britain will spend around 300 billion pounds ($397bn) over the next four years to modernize its armed forces amid growing threats.

Starmer, who is expected to leave office next month after losing the support of Labor MPs, announced on Tuesday that the total defense budget would rise by 15 billion pounds ($20bn) over the next four years to nearly 300 billion pounds as he launched his long-awaited defense plan.

“Last year, I made a decision in the best interest of the country to re-prioritize defense spending and achieve the greatest improvement in defense spending since the end of the Cold War,” Starmer said.

“That was a good decision because the world has changed, national security and economic security.

“Today we are raising defense spending – an extra £15 billion – by…

The plan includes more than 5 billion pounds ($6.6bn) of drones and autonomous systems over the next four years, the Ministry of Defense said in a news release.

The announcement followed months of wrangling within Starmer’s Labor government over the funding needed to keep the United Kingdom’s military under threat from a growing number of threats, including from Russia.

Two defense ministers resigned this month in a row over the proposed spending, including Defense Secretary John Healey, who said the plans would put Britain’s “security” at risk.

Starmer’s pledge came as US President Donald Trump has repeatedly urged NATO allies to spend more on defense and to be less dependent on Washington for defense.

Starmer will take the plan, which foresees spending around 80 billion pounds ($105.7bn) a year by 2029, to Ankara for NATO summit on July 7-8. They want to point out that Britain is on track to spend 3.5 percent of its gross domestic product on defense by 2035.

With successor Andy Burnham due to take over from July 20, Starmer admitted that new governments would “build” on his plans.

Critics said the plan, which was delayed for nine months, was too little, too late.