Outgoing UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Tuesday that Britain would spend almost £300 billion ($397 billion) over the next four years to modernize its armed forces amid rising threats. Starmer, expected to leave office next month after losing the support of Labour MPs, announced the increase in defense spending as he launched his long-awaited 10-year Defense Investment Plan. Britain will create a new £50 billion ($66 billion) defense export facility to help domestic firms compete internationally, Starmer said. Starmer said he had "no doubt" any future Labour government would build on his defense spending plan, when asked whether potential successor Andy Burnham had committed to future defense investment. Asked whether Burnham, the Labour lawmaker expected to replace Keir Starmer as British prime minister, had given assurances he would raise defense spending in the next review, Starmer said the current program would serve as "a platform on which whoever comes after me can build." Starmer announced he would step down earlier in June. Burnham, currently the only declared candidate to take over from Starmer, could be made prime minister as soon as next month.
