Starmer may delay the defence spending increase (Image: Getty)
The Government is reportedly , potentially delaying them until 2030.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is facing mounting pressure as her controversial October Budget leaves the UK economy flagging.
Now, sources in Whitehall have told the Daily Mail that the Chancellor and Prime Minister could be forced to scale down or even abandon previous spending commitments to balance the books.
Among the spending pledges that could be affected is Labour’s to 2.5% of GDP.
According to the Mail, Labour are now thinking of pushing this pledge back to 2030.
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The British Army only has 75,000 personnel (Image: Getty)
Among those to criticise this consideration was Lord West, a former head of the Navy and Labour peer.
He said: “This nonsense of saying we’ll wait and see when we can afford to spend more money on defence is just crazy.
“Our forces are hollowed out and there is not enough money in the programme. We need to increase spending immediately.”
Conservative MP Julian Lewis, former chairman of the Commons defence committee, called for defence spending approaching 4-5% of GDP due to the ongoing threat poses to NATO.
Labour has previously been accused of backing away from its defence spending committments.
In September, Defence Secretary John Healey told Radio 4’s Today programme that the Government may have to make “tough choices” on defence.
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He added: “Across government we’re now all dealing with public finances this year that are far worse than we or anyone else thought before the election.
“This is probably the worst inheritance of any government in living memory so that’s why both the prime minister and chancellor have talked about tough choices which we will make.”
In November, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Sir said the UK will “set out a path” to reach its defence spending committments in the spring.
They said: “The Prime Minister underscored the need for all NATO countries to step up in support of our collective defence and updated on the government’s progress on the strategic defence review,” the spokeswoman said.
“His government would set out the path to 2.5% in the spring.”
The British Army currently has 75,325 personnel excluding volunteers. The Army has a reserve force of around 30,000.
The number of full-time personnel is down from 100,000 back in 2010.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine (Image: Getty)