Defence funding row grows as London pint prices hit £10
Gen Sir Richard Barrons says new weapons may not be funded until 2030, while London bars are charging £10 a pint for the first time.
Britain’s politics of scarcity is showing up in two very different places at once: the Armed Forces say they may have to wait until 2030 for money to buy new weapons, while London drinkers are now paying £10 and more for a pint. The squeeze lands on the same government, which has promised to lift defence spending to 2.5% of GDP from April 2027 and wants to reach 3% in the next Parliament, subject to economic and fiscal conditions.
Gen Sir Richard Barrons, one of the authors of the Strategic Defence Review 2025, warned on 3 May 2026 that Britain’s military had not been promised enough money to buy new weapons until 2030. He said the Armed Forces lacked the funding to modernise effectively and had gone backwards since the review was published on 2 June 2025. That review set out a sharp test for the UK: by 2035 it should be able to deter, fight and win against states with advanced military forces.
The row matters because defence spending is no longer being discussed as an abstract strategic target. The review was tied to Labour’s commitment to raise spending after years of pressure on public finances, and the current argument is over how quickly that promise can translate into contracts, equipment and readiness. Concerns over a wider Ministry of Defence shortfall, and the risk that delays to spending plans could deter investment, have added to the pressure on ministers to show where the money will come from.
The same tension over constrained budgets is visible in everyday life. Stanley’s rooftop bar in Mayfair, attached to the Chesterfield hotel, was charging £11 for a pint of Moretti or Heineken and £10 for a pint of Guinness. Across London, high-end bars are now asking £10 or more for draught and bottled beer, pushing a symbolically important price barrier in a city where pint costs have already climbed sharply.
The British Beer and Pub Association said the average pint cost £4.80 before the 2024 Budget and that new government costs would take it to £5.01. In March 2025, the trade body warned that tax rises and wage increases would add 21p to the average pint, as beer producers and pub operators absorbed pressure from taxes, staffing, rent and utilities. Its members brew 90% of Britain’s beer and look after 20,000 pubs, a reminder that the same fiscal squeeze is now being felt both in Whitehall and on the high street.
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