The British Prime Minister is considering the possibility of a significant increase in defense spending, the BBC has learned.
Downing Street is considering the idea of meeting an existing spending target earlier than planned, at a potential cost of billions of pounds, the Telegraph reports.
Keir Starmer signalled his stance over the weekend at the Munich Security Conference, telling world leaders: "To meet the wider threat, it is clear that we will need to spend more, faster."
The prime minister promised last year to spend 2.5% of national wealth - measured as gross domestic product (GDP) - on essential defense by April 2027.
But he also presented an "ambition" to increase this spending to 3% of GDP in the next parliament.
The BBC has been told that the prime minister's aides are now considering proposals to meet that 3% ambition by the end of the current parliament, which could last until 2029.
No decision has been made and the Treasury is said to be cautious.
The idea was discussed at a key meeting of the prime minister and his advisers earlier this month, where they considered how best to meet existing defence commitments as part of the long-delayed "defence investment plan".
Reports last month suggested that the Ministry of Defence (MOD) needed an extra £28 billion to meet existing costs over the next four years.
Richard Knighton, the chief of the defence staff, told MPs in January: "We cannot do everything we would like to do, as quickly as we want to do it, within the context of the budget that we have set."
Officials said this realization - that previous commitments would not cover rising defense costs and existing bills - is fueling the idea of bringing forward spending plans.
Downing Street sources said the defence investment plan was still being finalised and no decisions had been made. "There is a lot of speculation," one said.
Achieving the 3% of GDP target five years earlier than planned would be extremely costly. The Office for Budget Responsibility, the independent body that provides ministers with economic forecasts, calculated in March last year that increasing defence spending to 3% of GDP would cost an extra £17.3bn a year by 2029-30. /Telegraph/
