UKIP Pledges to Boost Defense Budget Ahead of British Elections

The right-wing party is looking to secure a role in the new government after the May 7 general election.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The UK Independence Party (UKIP) has said it will look to boost Britain's defense budget to keep the country's military spending at the current level of 2 percent of the country's GDP.

UKIP has only two seats in the House of Commons, the lower house of the British Parliament, but the party, led by Nigel Farage, won the popular vote in Britain at the European Parliamentary elections in May 2014.

The ruling Conservative party and their main rivals, Labour, have so far refused to commit to the 2 percent target set by NATO for its 28 members states.

"We would properly fund our defense, and still have a skeptical position about getting dragged into foreign wars," UKIP's spokesperson Patrick O'Flynn said, as quoted by the Telegraph.

UKIP promised to spend an additional $4.5 billion a year on the military to prevent the overall defense budget from dropping below 2 percent, according to O'Flynn.

Meanwhile, UK Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said that the UK would stick to the 2 percent NATO target in 2015 and 2016, with future defense budgets subject to review by the next government.