In recent days, we’ve seen people claiming again that the government is spending “an extra £270 billion” on defence over this parliament.

The claim has appeared in some news outlets, where it was attributed to a government spokesperson.

But this isn’t right.

As we explained earlier this year after seeing the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer say something similar, £270 billion was roughly the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) total projected spend for the years 2025/26 to 2028/29. It doesn’t represent the combined extra spending over this period.

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Defence minister Luke Pollard confirmed this in February, when he said £270 billion “is the total of the Ministry of Defence’s budget from financial year 2025/26 to 2028/29”. Adding together the MoD’s planned spends, as outlined in last year’s Spending Review, for each of these years gives a figure of £272.2 billion.

It’s worth noting that on 30 June 2026 Mr Starmer announced a £15 billion increase to defence spending over the next four years (up to 2029/30). £11 billion of this £15 billion is the new increase in spending between 2026/27 and 2028/29, so this raises the original figure of £270 billion.

We’ve asked both Number 10 and the MoD about this claim and will update this article if we receive a response.

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