New NATO Annual Report puts UK down to 13th, from being top European military power

“We’re at war, you act like we’re at peace” – Sir Bernard Jenkin attacks Sir Keir in special Committee hearing

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2026

Britannia ruled the waves for % of GDP spent on defence – Now we’ve sunk below Latvia, under this government

From being at or next to the top of NATO’s annual rankings for years, the Alliance’s latest Annual Report, just released, shows just how far the UK has sunk.

Ahead of a major defence report GB News is publishing early on Thursday morning, think-tank Facts4EU has provided GB News exclusively with shocking evidence of ‘how the mighty have fallen’ under the captaincy of our Prime Minister. If ever a wake-up call were needed for the UK’s defence preparedness compared to our international friends and allies, this is it.

Under Sir Keir Starmer, Britannia no longer rules the waves – and nor does this seem likely – with a Prime Minister who has failed to react to rapidly growing threats when almost all around us have. This fact is amply demonstrated in Facts4EU’s analysis of data from NATO’s report on 2025.

How the UK has fallen

For 10 years, Facts4EU has been providing a UK summary of NATO’s Annual Reports. Below left is their chart from NATO’s 2016 Report, showing EU and NATO members. Below right is the ranking of the UK today amongst all NATO members.

The UK’s steady fall since the Cold War and now a dramatic plummeting

Most readers will be aware that the UK’s defence spend has fallen as a percentage of GDP which began after the Cold War ended. What has happened in the last two years, however, has been dramatic in comparison with our allies and has eclipsed the slow decline over decades. This is especially true in light of the rapidly escalating threats to the security of the United Kingdom, its sovereign bases, and its Middle East allies.

Many of these predicted threats have of course now turned out to be real, from Russian activities in the North and Arctic seas, to Russia’s continued aggression against Ukraine, to Iran’s attacks on sovereign UK bases on Cyprus and in the Chagos Islands.

The chart above clearly shows that whilst other NATO European allies have responded by dramatically increasing their defence spend as a proportion of GDP, the UK has barely moved. In fact, the average increase by our European and Canadian allies is over seven times that of the UK.

What increase in defence spend has Sir Keir promised the British public?

Over a year ago, Sir Keir Starmer announced his plans for defence expenditure.

Extraordinarily, this policy has remained unchanged despite all the events in the meantime. The plan is still to spend 2.5% of GDP (2.6% including the security services), and this very modest increase will still not start until April next year. This will put the UK even further down the NATO rankings. Even in February last year, when the statement was made, it was obvious that Britain would not “lead the way”, or even come close to doing so.

Sir Keir on the rack

The policy was questioned most recently by Sir Bernard Jenkin MP, when the PM appeared in front of the highly-influential House of Commons Liaison Committee last week. It resulted in Sir Keir Starmer losing his temper in a most un-Prime Ministerial way. Below we are providing the full clip.

Under Sir Bernard's determined questioning, Sir Keir finally loses it just after 05.13, if you only want to watch that part. We do recommend the entire clip, however.

If your browser won't play the video, use this link to watch.
Credit and copyright: Parliament TV

NOTE TO GBN COLLEAGUES: The transcript is here: https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/17382/html/ and it starts at Question 20.

Instead of recognising the dramatic change in the threat levels affecting the United Kingdom from a variety of hostile actors, the Prime Minister is still intent on blaming previous governments for not investing more before his tenure, when threat levels were rising but were not at current levels.

What happens after the spend is increased (very modestly) to 2.6% of GDP?

After the increase to 2.6% of GDP, (from the current 2.3%), which will place the UK as one of the worst-performing members of NATO, the Prime Minister is leaving the next change to the next Government.

What’s the DIP, why is it so important, and why has it been delayed for six months by the PM?

Firstly, there was a Defence Strategic Review commissioned under the previous government to set out overall objectives. This is worth absolutely nothing, however, without what is known as the Defence Industrial Strategy, or DIP. This “puts the meat on the bones” and crystallises the overall strategy into deliverables which are costed.

It is this final point which appears to have caused the delay in the current Government releasing it. There is no question but that the defence budget will have to be increased dramatically.

The DIP will require Rachel Reeves to make significant savings, in benefits, for example, or to raise taxes yet again, which would further break manifesto promises. Other countries have reduced expenditures to fund their increase in defence spending, but this Government seems reluctant to do that. We have surely gone past the point, as Sir Bernard Jenkin tried to raise with the Prime Minister, when tough decisions must be made.

[ Sources: NATO Annual Report 2025, released 26 Mar 2026 | No. 10 ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

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