‘Trump is right’: Lammy says defence spending must rise
With Russia on the march and the end of post-Cold War peace, David Lammy has argued that Europe’s defence spending must rise.
The foreign secretary said for the UK to be “taken seriously… we must put our money where our mouth is” in his first major speech of 2025.
Lammy told an audience of diplomats and foreign policy experts in the Locarno room at the Foreign Office on Thursday that: “That starts by facing the facts. Donald Trump and JD Vance are simply right when they say that Europe needs to do more to defend its own continent.
“It is myopia to pretend otherwise, with Russia on the march.”
Trump has called for NATO member states to spend five per cent of GDP on defence – a significant hike for European countries who say they would struggle to meet the threshold.
The UK currently spends 2.3 per cent of GDP on defence and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is yet to set out a pathway to spending 2.5 per cent.
US defence spending last year was 3.4 per cent of GDP but as a percentage of America’s much larger economy represents hundreds of billions of dollars more in real terms.
Lammy said: “This government will lay out a clear pathway to reaching 2.5 per cent of our GDP on defence.
“And with [defence secretary] John Healey, we will lead and we will change to convince all of our NATO allies that rising defence spending is a strategic necessity.”
The cabinet minister argued his approach – which he called progressive realism, or “taking the world as it is, not as we wish it to be” – to global affairs required “confronting some hard truths”.
Citing conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan, Lammy said: “We have to accept that there is no going back… the post-Cold War peace is well and truly over. This is a changed strategic environment.”
And he said the world would not “get back to normal” and that the “Kremlin threat” would not end, adding: “Europe’s future security is on a knife-edge.”
Lammy said the Labour government would work with European allies, strengthen its friendship with the US, and showing “the world our resolve” against “Putin’s mafia state”.
He called for the UK to “stand firm against terrorism and behind international law”, as well as “defending Israel against an Iranian regime that wants to destroy it, while… working for that ceasefire in Gaza to bring in aid, return the hostages and advance a two-state solution”.
On China, Lammy said there should be “consistency, not oscillation” and “pragmatic engagement” to cooperate where we can, such as on trade, climate, health and AI. But he also cited the need for “robust dialogue and challenge” to “clear threats”.