UK vows defense spending boost by 2030 but dodges hard questions – POLITICO

LONDON — Britain's top finance minister on Wednesday promised an uplift in defense spending by 2030 to "set the direction" for meeting a crucial NATO target — but didn't lay out how the government will get there.

John Healey quit as U.K. defense secretary in the dying days of Keir Starmer's government in a row over funding. On Wednesday he gave his first budget as chancellor under new Prime Minister Andy Burnham, setting out the government's tax and spending plans.

Healey committed for the first time to spending 3% of GDP on the nation's defenses by 2030 — something he had called for when quit Starmer's administration. But he declined to say where he would find the money, a staging post on the way to meeting NATO's target of 3.5% of GDP by 2035. Instead he said it would fall to a broader review of government spending next year.