Sir Keir Starmer made misleading defence spending claim, watchdog says

Former Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, the Wales Office and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) used misleading figures about how much the country would spend on defence, a watchdog has said.

In March Sir Keir told MPs that ministers were increasing defence spending by £270bn. The two other departments later repeated similar claims in June.

But the UK Statistics Authority say that is wrong, as the figure is the proposed overall amount the government plans to spend between 2025 and 2029. The Wales Office deleted a post on X that had contained the claim.

A UK government spokesperson said: "We have previously acknowledged this phrasing and took immediate steps to ensure it was not replicated."

Downing Street said it had nothing to add. The authority said steps taken by the Wales Office and the MoD should reduce the risk of the claim being made again in future.

Sir Keir resigned from Downing Street in July , when he was succeeded by Andy Burnham .

In March Sir Keir told the House of Commons liaison committee: "We have already committed to 2.5% in 2027, and we will hit that. That means that, in this Parliament, we will spend £270bn more on defence than we would otherwise have done."

Similar claims were made by an MoD spokesman in June, and by the Wales Office X account, which said on 3 June: "The UK government is increasing defence spending by £270bn over this Parliament to strengthen our national security."