Nato chief says he is confident Burnham will stick to defence spending target

Nato’s secretary general has said he is confident Andy Burnham will stick to the alliance’s long-term spending commitments, and that the man expected to be the UK’s next prime minister would recognise that rearmament can spur economic growth. During a visit to London, Mark Rutte said he did not expect the UK to meet an alliance target to spend 3.5% of GDP on defence by 2035 “in one big step” when its long-delayed defence investment plan was published on Tuesday. But he said he believed Burnham would see broader value in boosting UK defence spending by nearly £30bn a year, and that “judging from history”, Labour prime ministers had shown “a consistent commitment to Nato”. Referring to Burnham as Keir Starmer’s likely successor, Rutte said: “I can imagine that the new prime minister will be extremely interested in the issue of economic growth and more jobs. “Defence spending does two things at the same time. One, your first priority as a government, keep the country safe, obviously number one. But also second [is the] impact of your defence investments. Next to keeping the country safe and strong, is [the fact] it will create jobs.” Rutte also met the UK foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, in the Foreign Office. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Reuters A row over the UK’s longer-term defence spending led to the resignation of John Healey as defence secretary earlier this month. He complained that the UK was going too slowly to meet the 3.5% spending target. …