UK will not ‘pull up drawbridge’ to foreign firms to spend defence cash – Reeves
The Chancellor said she wanted the boost to defence spending to benefit UK firms but that there would always be a need to buy things from abroad.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said she wants to use the recently announced boost to defence spending to support UK businesses but will not “pull up the drawbridge” to foreign manufacturers.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to increase defence spending to 2.5% of the size of the economy from April 2027, something the Chancellor believes will help create jobs and drive growth in the UK.
Ms Reeves was asked if she would be minded to buy British when it came to spending the extra money for defence, for example when choosing fighter jets.
“I do want to make sure that as we spend more on defence, that that is used to support British jobs and British industries,” she told a manufacturing industry conference in London on Tuesday.
She said she was working with UK defence companies on how to increase capacity and capability to “step up to this moment in the same way the Government is stepping up to this moment”, and that a defence innovation hub was being set up to help smaller businesses benefit from the extra military spending.
“We’ll always have a need to buy things from abroad. I don’t want to pull up the drawbridge, but as we spend more on defence, of course, I want to see that benefit the UK economy and UK jobs,” Ms Reeves said.