Andy Burnham is considering delaying an announcement on how and when Britain will raise defence spending to 3% of GDP, leaving the route towards NATO’s 3.5% target by 2035 unresolved.
The question has already shaped the careers of ministers at the centre of Burnham’s government. In the previous administration, John Healey resigned as defence secretary after he failed to secure funding to lift defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2030. His resignation helped bring down then-Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Burnham then appointed Healey finance minister, a job he has held since July, and gave him responsibility for a £4.7 billion gap in the existing Defence Investment Plan. The Office for Budget Responsibility has estimated that reaching 3% by 2030 would require an additional £17.3 billion.
Healey is due to deliver his first budget on 28 October. The government has yet to say whether it will use that moment to set out defence plans or delay them.
At Prime Minister’s Questions on 9 September 2026, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch used all six of her questions to press Burnham over defence spending. She asked whether he was “unable” or “just unwilling” to meet the 2030 target, saying that 2035 was “a decade away” and “the threats are now”.
Burnham said a date for reaching 3% would be set out in the spending review in the spring. He also told MPs that national security “can't come at the expense of social security”.
Wes Streeting, the defence secretary, has said the UK will reach 2.7 percent defence spending by next year, from 2.3 percent when Labour took office. In September, he said there should be “no doubt about the Chancellor's commitment to investing in our defence”, and called for the spending review to set out the route to both 3% and 3.5%.
That spring timetable is now in doubt. The Times cited a source saying the “working assumption” was for the review to take place in October 2027. A finance ministry spokesperson rejected the suggestion, saying: “The date of the Spending Review has not been set. This is pure rumour and speculation”.
Burnham has committed Britain to NATO’s 3.5% spending target by 2035. Mark Rutte, NATO’s chief, said he was “absolutely confident” in the UK’s commitment, though the precise “pathway” would not be set out until next year. He said there had to be “a credible path”.
The timetable is being debated amid security concerns. The US removed bombers from RAF Fairford on Sunday after the airbase was targeted in a suspected Iranian plot. Sir Keir Starmer has said British intelligence believes Russia could attack NATO as soon as 2030.
Burnham has yet to announce whether the spending review will remain in spring 2027 or move to a later date. Until then, the government has no published timetable for the steps needed to reach 3% of GDP.
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