At Ankara summit, Starmer tells Burnham not to borrow for defence

Trump agreed to stay in touch with departing UK leader

Keir Starmer told incoming Prime Minister Andy Burnham not to borrow to fund higher defence spending, warning that the UK already spends £1 of every £10 the government spends on servicing existing debt. Starmer made the remarks as he returned from the NATO summit in Ankara, his final major international engagement before stepping down.

“The caution I have with extra borrowing is that we are already spending £1 of every £10 that we spend as a government servicing our borrowing, and therefore it is not for me the sensible place to go for extra defence money,” Starmer said.

Senior UK defence officials said Burnham could explore alternative mechanisms, including war bonds, a concept the Treasury previously rejected as equivalent to extra borrowing. “We definitely need to look at all of these things, and we’ve got to find the best mechanisms of generating the kind of resource that we are going to need now and in the future,” one official said.

At the summit, President Donald Trump presented a chart showing NATO members’ defence spending in real terms, with the UK in second place over the past decade. However, the UK ranks 12th out of 32 members when spending is measured as a proportion of GDP. Starmer said Trump thanked the UK for its material contributions. “So far as funding is concerned, speaking only for the United Kingdom, President Trump thanked us for the contribution we made over many years in material terms,” Starmer told reporters.

Starmer said Trump agreed to remain in contact after he leaves office, describing the relationship as “a really important strategic relationship for the UK.” He said he “got along really well” with Trump over the longer term and saw it as his duty to maintain the link. “That is important in terms of the relationship between the UK and the US, because it is a really important strategic relationship for the UK. I saw it as my duty to make sure it’s a relationship that worked,” Starmer said.

Earlier this week, Trump described the UK as a “deindustrialised welfare zone” and said the country was in decline under Starmer’s “weak leadership,” the latest in a series of attacks since Starmer declined to involve the UK more deeply in the US war against Iran. Starmer declined to comment. “Having resisted so far, I’m not going to be tempted at the last hurdle into starting commenting on what other people may say or not,” he said. He added that the UK is now in a stronger position on the economy, public services, and defence than when he took office two years ago.

Starmer also declined to rule out standing for NATO secretary general in the future, saying he was focused on his current job.

On the flight back to the UK, Starmer said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan gave each NATO leader a revolver engraved with their names and a box of live rounds. Starmer had to leave his in Ankara because importing it to the UK was illegal, even though Erdoğan provided a note waiving export controls.