LONDON

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday said the UK needs to "go faster" on increasing defense spending, following reports that the government is considering a significant acceleration of its military funding targets.

Responding to reports that ministers are looking at plans to raise defense spending to 3% of GDP by the end of this parliament in 2029, Starmer suggested the UK must "step up" to meet the "obvious" threat from Russia.

Starmer previously said he would like to reach the 3% target at some point in the next parliament, but his latest comments imply a shift in urgency.

"Over the weekend, I was making the argument at the Munich Security Conference that we, the UK and Europe, need to step up when it comes to defence and security," he said at an event in southwest London.

"We have a threat of Russian aggression, in a few days time it's the four-year anniversary of the start of the conflict in Ukraine."

"We want a just and lasting peace, but that will not extinguish the Russian threat, and we need to be alert to that, because that's going to affect every single person in this room, every single person in this country, so we need to step up. That means on defense spending, we need to go faster," he warned.

If Starmer follows through on reaching a 3% GDP defense target by 2029, the UK would shift from being a "middle-tier" NATO spender to one of the alliance's most heavily armed financial contributors.

Currently, the UK spends roughly 2.3% to 2.4% of its GDP on defense.

While this comfortably exceeds the long-standing 2% NATO minimum, it trails behind several frontline states such as Poland, Estonia and the US.