UK needs to reach 2.5% of GDP for defence spending ‘now – as soon as possible’, security minister warns

Published

2 years ago

March 11, 2024

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Tom Tugendhat, the security minister, has told Sky News he wants to see defence spending reach 2.5% of GDP “now – as soon as possible”.

This departs from the stated government position – repeated at the budget last week – that spending will reach the 2.5% target “as soon as economic conditions allow”.

Mr Tugendhat – a former soldier – last week urged the prime minister to “lead the way” on increasing defence spending.

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He made the intervention in a post on LinkedIn alongside Foreign Office minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan.

In the social media post last week, Mr Tugendhat called on the UK to increase its spending on defence to “2.5% and beyond”.

Asked today if he wanted to see Rishi Sunak do more, Mr Tugendhat said: “Well, I want to achieve 2.5% now – as soon as possible.

“That is exactly what we need to achieve.

“You know, the first step is to get to 2.5% and then we’ll have to adjust as the challenges we face evolve.”

There was no additional money for the armed forces in the budget last week. Currently, spending on defence is at around 2.2% of GDP.

Speaking at the budget last week, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said: “Our armed forces remain the most professional and best-funded in Europe with defence spending already more than 2% of GDP.

“We are providing more military support to Ukraine than nearly any other country and our spending will rise to 2.5% as soon as economic conditions allow.”

Mr Tugendhat said that Mr Hunt “set out a very strong budget last week about growth and he’s absolutely right”.

He added that it’s “clear” the UK “must increase defence spending”.

The security minister listed the “challenges of Iran’s ambitions in the Middle East”, the “threat that Russia poses to Ukraine” and also the “rise in autocratic states” as the reasons for needing to increase defence spending.

Mr Tugendhat also said that Mr Sunak – who was then the chancellor – should be thanked as much as Boris Johnson and former defence secretary Ben Wallace for the growing defence budgets in recent years, which had been at 2%.

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In the LinkedIn post last week, Mr Tugendhat and Ms Trevelyan said: “Former defence secretary Ben Wallace and prime minister Boris Johnson made inroads into growing our defence budgets, which had been shrinking in real terms for years. But that only filled the hole. Now we need growth.”

Mr Tugendhat denied the article was implying Mr Sunak had to be dragged “kicking and screaming” into agreeing to the previous boosts.

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Securitize hires former PayPal exec as US tokenization gains traction

Published

1 hour ago

December 9, 2025

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Securitize hires former PayPal exec as US tokenization gains traction

Major tokenization platform Securitize has doubled down on its push to bring tokenized equity to US investors, naming a former PayPal executive as its new general counsel.

Securitize on Tuesday announced the appointment of ex-PayPal executive Jerome Roche, who led the company’s expansion into digital asset projects, including the PayPal USD (PYUSD) stablecoin.

Securitize also said its tokenized securities are already available to US investors, challenging the notion that most issuers prefer to offer such products abroad due to local stock access.

“There’s been a perception that tokenized securities must be offered primarily outside the US, but our experience shows the opposite,” Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo told Cointelegraph.

“Clear regulatory path” for tokenized stocks in the US

According to Securitize, operating real-world asset (RWA) tokenization offerings inside the US regulatory perimeter is “not only possible, but scalable, at institutional quality.”

“We’ve demonstrated that there is a clear regulatory path for issuers to natively tokenize assets for US investors,” Domingo said.

“These are not synthetic representations, or derivatives, but real securities onchain,” the CEO said, adding:

“We operate using SEC-regulated infrastructure, including a registered transfer agent broker-dealer, and fund admin, which allows US investors to access and legally hold tokenized securities in a fully compliant framework.”

Securitize’s optimistic outlook on the US tokenization comes days after the platform obtained regulatory approval to operate as an investment company and a trading ánd settlement system in the European Union on Nov. 26. According to the company, the approval positioned it as one of the first operators for regulated digital securities infrastructure in both the US and EU.

“For the first time, modern ledger technology is giving us the ability to record ownership, settle transactions, and move value in ways that are fundamentally better than the fragmented systems we’ve inherited,” Securitize’s newly appointed general counsel, Roche, said in the announcement.

“Innovation only works when it fits squarely within the guardrails of applicable law,” he added, underscoring Securitize’s global push for regulated tokenized securities.

Securitize’s news is another sign of the US warming to tokenization. On Monday, the Securities and Exchange Commission dropped its investigation into rival tokenization platform Ondo Finance.

Ondo said the decision marks a new chapter for tokenized securities in the US, where they are poised to become a “core part of the capital markets.”