UK Finance Minister Rachel Reeves has suggested that taxes may need to be raised to cover increased defence spending. She said that, due to growing security threats, the United Kingdom and other European countries must increase their defence spending. Reeves emphasised that it would be more appropriate to fund the defence sector through tax revenues rather than through new government borrowing.
The British government is expected to present a detailed defence investment plan ahead of the NATO summit in July. The government has been tasked with identifying areas for savings in order to allocate an additional £15 billion to defence over four years.
At the same time, military circles believe that the actual requirement is around £28 billion. Earlier, the media reported that Keir Starmer’s government is considering cutting some spending on climate and transport programmes in order to redirect funds towards defence needs.