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How to watch the Tour of Britain 2023 - TV and live stream as Tom Pidcock and Wout van Aert do battle

Published 04/09/2023 at 10:02 GMT

The 2023 Tour of Britain has arrived with Great Britain's Tom Pidcock aiming to do battle with overall favourite Wout van Aert for glory on the eight-stage race. The final stages of last year's event were cancelled after the death of Queen Elizabeth II. The Tour gets underway in Greater Manchester and finishes in Caerphilly, South Wales where riders will take on the legendary Caerphilly mountain.

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How can I watch the Tour of Britain on TV and live stream?

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Tour of Britain 2023 route map today: Stage 3 schedule, where to watch, road closures and TV coverage

The howdens stage, which runs from goole to beverley over 154.7km, is one for the sprinters.

The  2023 Tour of Britain enters its third stage today, and will see East Riding of Yorkshire host a full stage of the tour for the first time.

This stage will take place almost 15 years to the day since the event last passed through the county, during a stage that travelled from Hull to Dalby Forest.

Dutch rider Olav Kooij became the first rider in four years to win back-to-back stages of the tour on Monday as he claimed victory in stage 2 in Wrexham . His Belgian Jumbo-Visma teammate Wout van Aert finished third behind BORA–hansgrohe’s Danny van Poppel.

It means Kooij holds the overall lead heading into stage 3 and Jumbo-Visma remain in firm control of the event.

“We went again for another win today – we took control and tried to catch the break which took a huge effort by two of our guys. We went into the last kilometre in a really good position again and were able to take the second win,” Kooij said.

What is the Tour of Britain route today?

The Howdens Stage, which runs from Goole to Beverley over 154.7km, is one for the sprinters.

Following a start in the port town of Goole, the peloton will head north to Howden, Market Weighton, and Driffield. Riders will then get a taste of British seaside life when they race through Bridlington, before they head inland towards the finish line upon reaching Hornsea.

The expected sprint finish will take place at Beverley Westwood, a popular green space for families that sits next to the town’s racecourse.

Here is the full route with expected timings:

• Goole, Market Square – 11.30am
• Howden – 11.48am
• Holme-on-Spalding Moor – 12.23pm
• Market Weighton – 12.36pm
• Towthorpe Lane – 12.40pm
• Middleton-on-the-Wolds – 12.52pm
• Driffield – 1.14pm
• Langtoft – 1.32pm
• Rudston – 1.44pm
• Bridlington – 1.59pm
• Skipsea – 2.20pm
• Hornsea – 2.32pm
• Tickton – 3.12pm
• Beverley, York Road – 3.26pm

You can see the full in-depth timetable, including road closures, here .

Tour of Britain stage schedule Grand Depart  | Sunday 3 September | Greater Manchester: Altrincham > Manchester Stage 2  | Monday 4 September | Wrexham > Wrexham Stage 3  | Tuesday 5 September | Goole > Beverley Stage 4 | Wednesday 6 September | Sherwood Forest > Newark-on-Trent Stage 5  | Thursday 7 September | Felixstowe > Felixstowe Stage 6  | Friday 8 September | Southend-on-Sea > Harlow Stage 7  | Saturday 9 September | Tewkesbury > Gloucester Stage 8  | Sunday 10 September | Margam Country Park > Caerphilly

How can I watch the Tour of Britain?

ITV4 is broadcasting all eight stages of the 2023 Tour of Britain in their entirety. A one-hour highlights show will also be shown each evening.

ITV4 is available on Freeview (channel 25), Freesat (channel 117), Sky (channel 120), Virgin Media (channel 118) and the ITV X (online) in the UK.

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Young fan who 'led' Tour of Britain breakaway presented as Jumbo-Visma's additional rider ahead of final stage

The youngster went viral after his racing exploits during stage seven

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A young fan who kept the Tour of Britain stage seven breakaway at bay was presented as Jumbo-Visma 's fifth rider on the final day of action.

Xander Graham rode ahead of the six escapees during Saturday's stage to Edinburgh for around 50 seconds, and when the break pulled alongside him, the youngster was awarded a bottle from Jumbo-Visma's Pascal Eenkhoorn.

It was a moment captured on live television, and the images that accompanied it went viral during and after the stage, many fans pointing out that the UCI's early-season and since changed ban on gifting bottles to spectators contradicted the spirit of the sport.

Overnight, race organisers managed to track down the identity of the child, and he was made guest of Eisberg Wine, meeting several of the peloton's stars at the stage start in Stonehaven.

>>> Wout van Aert makes it four Tour of Britain stage wins and steals overall title from Ethan Hayter

The real race we're here for!Nicely done, @PascalEenkhoorn 🙌 📺 Watch stage seven live on ITV4#TourOfBritain 🔵⚪🔵 pic.twitter.com/C4G646nZ5I September 11, 2021

After a fist bump with Mark Cavendish, Graham was then presented with a signed Jumbo-Visma jersey, before meeting Eenkhoorn, the Dutchman himself having received much praise for his generous actions.

During the team presentations, Graham joined Jumbo-Visma's remaining four riders on the podium, sharing the stage alongside Eenkhoorn, Wout van Aert, George Bennett and Gijs Leemreize.

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It was just one of two acts of generosity from the Dutch team in Scotland with race winner Van Aert also gifting Cavendish's young son Casper a signed jersey which ws greeted with an emotional hug. 

cThe racing went well for Van Aert, too, the Belgian champion sprinting to his fourth win in eight days to steal the overall title from Briton Ethan Hayter.

It looked as if veteran racer André Greipel would take the honours in Aberdeen but he was outdone by Van Aert's rapid turn of speed in the final hundred metres, with Cavendish coming through for third, his best individual result of the race.

Julian Alaphilippe from Deceuninck - Quick-Step finished third on GC.

I mean what a Sunday for Casper. X pic.twitter.com/RPW0jorN0k September 12, 2021

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A freelance sports journalist and podcaster, you'll mostly find Chris's byline attached to news scoops, profile interviews and feature writing across a variety of different publications. He has been writing regularly for Cycling Weekly since 2013.

Previously a ski, hiking and cycling guide in a number of places, but mostly in the Canadian Rockies and Spanish Pyrenees, he almost certainly holds the record for the most number of interviews conducted from snowy mountains.

He lives in Valencia, Spain.

The length of your commute is a major factor; but there are ways to adapt your routine to maximise on the gains of riding into work

By Alex Welburn Published 25 April 24

Strong field lines up for what is now an eight-stage race with three summit finishes

By James Shrubsall Published 25 April 24

New Tour of Britain race director says he is still on good terms with Dave Brailsford after resigning from team last year

By Tom Thewlis Published 17 April 24

British Cycling aim to increase women’s Tour of Britain to six stages in 2025 in order to create full parity between the two events

By Tom Thewlis Published 3 April 24

Prize money for 2023 race unpaid, riders union says national federation must ‘bear the debts’ of previous organiser, SweetSpot

By Tom Thewlis Published 5 February 24

National federation committed to ensuring men's and women’s races take place this year but CEO admits it is in a ‘race against the clock’ to put on women's event

By Tom Thewlis Published 2 February 24

Ben Swift and Owain Doull both say it would be a "shame" were the Tour of Britain to be no more

By Adam Becket Published 26 January 24

Isle of Wight council not ruling out legal proceedings against SweetSpot to reclaim funds after island missed out on hosting race in 2022

By Tom Thewlis Published 30 November 23

British Cycling alleges race organiser SweetSpot will owe £700,000 in unpaid race licence fees by the end of 2023

By Tom Thewlis Published 7 November 23

Welshman takes heart from impressive showing in South Wales, as he looked like he might win the stage and overall

By Tom Thewlis Published 11 September 23

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Tour of Britain 2021 Stage Two arrives in Devon - as it happened

The latest updates as Wout Van Aert defends yesterday's Stage One victory over the rugged hills of Devon

• Updated 08:23, 7 SEP 2021

After the opening stage saw Wout Van Aert dramatically seize victory in Cornwall yesterday, the AJ Bell Tour of Britain comes to Devon for Stage Two of the event.

Today will see the riders go from Hercules Road in Sherford and across Dartmoor through Strete/Blackpool Sands, Torcross, Kingsbridge , Tavistock , Rundlestone and Postbridge before finishing at Queen Street in Exeter .

While Van Aert will be hoping to extend his lead, there are plenty of competitors hoping to stop him - including Olympic legend Mark Cavendish.

Much like yesterday's bonanza in Cornwall saw vast crowds congregate along the route of the tour catching a glimpse of the athletes in action, today will likely be no different - with the event broadcast live on ITV4 in its entirety for those who can't make it roadside.

With only one stage done, everything is to play for and today's stage across the contours and gradients of Devon is sure to test the riders to their limit. Dutch competitor Nils Eekhoff, Spaniard Gonzalo Serrano and British duo Ethan Hayer and Rory Townsend will all be hoping for a good day ahead.

We'll have all the action across the route and the scene on the ground throughout the day as the roads of Devon take centre stage on Day two of the Tour of Britain .

This is a live news blog - scroll down for the latest updates.

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• The best pictures of the day 20:00
• The overall 16:23
• The stage result 16:22
• Stage report 16:10
• Winner 15:59

The best pictures of the day

Exeter is still busy, the overall, the stage result, pictures of the winner.

Stage report

Sprint for second.

Ethan Haytor finishes second but Carpenter leads the race

Robin Carpenter wins Stage 2 of the Tour of Britain

The peloton are chasing

But surely it will be too late

The gap is down to just over one and a half minutes

Live at the finish

A lead of two minutes for Robin Carpenter

The lead is still more than two minutes

Jacob Scott has been caught

Just Carpenter ahead of the peleton

The gap is falling

Only two and half minutes to go as Robin Carpenter hits the outskirts of Exeter

Gap is down to three minutes

But less than 10km to go

The finish line

Coming over cadover bridge, full comittment from robin, carpenter looks to have the stage won, down to one.

Robin Carpenter has attacked on a climb and dropped Jacob Scott

Battle for the stage is on

The two in the break.

Jacob Scott has never won a professional race in his career - his best result in the King of the Mountains jersey he won in the Tour of Britain in 2019

Robin Carpenter has four professional wins - the biggest being the Tour of Alberta in 2016 and a stage of the Tour of Utah that year as well

Moretonhampstead

27km to go - a four minute lead

Down to two

We come back from a break and Brazilian Nicolas Sessler of Global 6 Cycling has been dropped or could have suffered a mechanical. Jacob Scott and Robin Carpenter the two left in front

Spectators wait at the finish

The three have a lead of four and a half minutes with just 35km to go - they should have enough to fight the stage out between them

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Tour of Britain: Wout van Aert wins opening stage

Belgian champion triumphs in uphill sprint in Bodmin

Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) won the first stage of the Tour of Britain , and took the overall race lead, proving to be the strongest in a reduced bunch sprint. 

Positioning was crucial given the speed of the final kilometre, and Van Aert was well-placed entering the short, steep ramp up to the finish. 

Though Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quickstep) launched a trademark attack with 600m to go, he could not escape the marauding bunch and Van Aert leapfrogged him in the sprint to take the win.

Nils Eekhoff (Team DSM) tracked Van Aert but wasn't able to get close and had to settle for second, while Gonzalo Serrano (Movistar) claimed the final podium spot. 

Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) trailed them to finish fourth, and there was a two-second gap to the next batch of riders, which included Alaphilippe, Giacomo Nizzolo (Qhubeka-NextHash), and Michael Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation). 

With 10 bonus seconds for the stage win, Van Aert pulls on the first navy leader's jersey with a gap of four seconds over Eekhoff, six over Serrano, 10 over Hayter, and 12 over the Alaphilippe group. 

How it unfolded

Through narrow roads and a thick Cornish drizzle, flanked by steep, grass banks and the huge crowds that appear whenever bike-racing comes to Britain, the race traversed the 180km from Penzance to Bodmin.

Despite a relatively fast neutral zone that strung out the peloton from the start, a five-man breakaway escaped, composed of Joey Rosskopf (Rally Cycling), Oliver Stockwell (Great Britain), Max Walker (TRINITY Racing) and the last two winners of the mountains classification- Jacob Scott (Canyon dhb SunGod) and Nic Dlamini (Team Qhubeka NextHash).

Content with this configuration, the WorldTour teams blocked the road and the familiar shapes of Tony Martin (Jumbo-Visma) and Tim Declercq (Deceuninck-Quickstep) surfaced from the depths of the peloton to control the race, allowing the breakaway a meagre three minutes lead. 

During their time out front, the breakaway contested the intermediate sprints and mountain points scattered across the jagged Cornish landscape, and Scott emerged victorious in both these competitions. He took the win on Zennor Hill, the first climb of the day, and, while Dlamini recovered from a dropped chain on this climb to take maximum mountain points at the second and third opportunities to do so, this was not enough to displace Scott. Scott won both intermediate sprints as well, to complete his near-perfect day out.

Soon after the final classified climb, the leading quintet became a trio as Rosskopf punctured and Dlamini looked to conserve energy for later in the week. Both were reabsorbed by the peloton 35 kilometres from the finish while their breakaway companions survived another ten kilometres before they too were caught.

On the approach to Bodmin, the WorldTour teams fought for control of the peloton, each deploying their star names as domestiques. André Greipel (Israel Start-Up Nation), Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck-Quickstep), Richie Porte (Ineos-Grenadiers) and Marc Soler (Movistar Team) in turn sat on the front of the race.

Deceuninck-Quickstep led the peloton into the town and, at the point where the road reared upwards in the final 500m, Alaphilippe attacked, though it was ultimately fruitless as Van Aert hunted him down to take the stage win. 

In the end, such was van Aert’s dominance, he was able to turn his head in the closing metres, and he crossed the line nonchalantly while, a bike length behind him, Eekhoff and Serrano gasped for air.

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Issy Ronald has just graduated from the London School of Economics where she studied for an undergraduate and masters degree in History and International Relations. Since doing an internship at Procycling magazine, she has written reports for races like the Tour of Britain, Bretagne Classic and World Championships, as well as news items, recaps of the general classification at the Grand Tours and some features for Cyclingnews . Away from cycling, she enjoys reading, attempting to bake, going to the theatre and watching a probably unhealthy amount of live sport.

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Tour of Britain 2024 Stages and Routes

The first details of the 20th edition of the modern race will be revealed in the coming weeks.

Following the cancellation of the 2021 edition owing to the death of Her Majesty The Queen, organisers SweetSpot will continue to work with the local authorities who were due to host stages to explore opportunities to host the race in the future.

One of the most highly anticipated professional cycling events in the United Kingdom is all set to kick off in the first week of September. The Tour of Britain is gearing up for its 2021 edition, which will also be the 14th edition since the reincarnation of the event with several changes in 2004. The cycling Tour of Britain route was unveiled back in February 2021 with the addition of a time trial stage. It now means that the Tour of Britain 2021 has nine stages compared to 8 in recent years. Even those eight Tour of Britain stages were a bump up from the five stages the event used to have in 2004.

The Surprising Route

Tour of Britain 2021 race director Mick Bennett unveiled the cycling Tour of Britain route in the hope of keeping up with the recent momentum of popularity gathered by the event. Several changes to the Tour of Britain stages over the last few years have made it more competitive and brought it to the levels of Tour de France or Vuelta a Espana. Attracting the best riders in the world to the United Kingdom is one of the sole objectives of this event.

George Square in Glasgow will form the location for the start of the 2021 edition. The nine Tour of Britain stages will see riders cover just over 1300 km from September 4 to September 11. This will certainly take its toll on the riders, but there is a consensus that the 2021 edition will be slightly easier than the 2015 edition. Furthermore, there is an opportunity for riders to make use of every Tour of Britain stage to prepare well for the upcoming World Championships in Qatar. This reason alone is expected to increase general interest amongst riders in the competition.

Tour of Britain 2021 – Challenging Parts

The upcoming competition brings a lot of aspects like challenging races and sprint finishes. These are aspects which will have a lot to do at the World Championships. Glasgow last played host to the start of the event back in 2008. It provides a sprint finish to the Castle Douglas since there is no prominent climbs along the way. Stage two goes through various sections of the enchanting Lake District, which may not offer anything out of the blue for experienced riders. The Lake District has been a standard fare of the Tour of Britain in recent years. Even though much of the route will be familiar, riders will have to be prepared for the climb from Ambleside towards the end of the stage.

Stage three at the Congleton marks the beginning of the tough stages. As expected, the stage four takes its toll since it is the longest. As the competition enters into the final stages, riders go through Wales and Bath before a time trial event near London. The final stage will be a replica of the final stage in 2015, which received a lot of rave reviews. Each stage is tough and this will be on the minds of punters when it comes to Tour of Britain bet online.

The growing popularity of the event has also resulted in a number of punters looking for good Tour of Britain bet online opportunities. These opportunities are presented because of the Tour of Britain 2021 odds, which are once again leaning towards the favourites like Alberto Contador. Even though it makes a lot of sense to make an early judgement, Tour of Britain 2021 odds at a later stage will provide a more accurate picture about the favourites for the title.

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Tour of Britain Women route revealed, with curtailed 2024 edition set to expand in coming years

Event confirmed to return in 2024 in shortened four-day format from Wales to Greater Manchester

Flo Clifford

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The podium of the last Women's Tour in 2022

British Cycling has revealed the route for this summer’s Tour of Britain Women , the revamped version of the flagship British race the Women’s Tour, which will start in north Wales and finish in Greater Manchester.

Starting in Welshpool on Thursday 6 June, the Women’s WorldTour -level stage race, which fills the same calendar slot as the old Women’s Tour, has been shortened from six to four stages this year due to the last-minute nature of British Cycling’s takeover .

The race did not run in 2023 due to financial difficulties and its former promoter Sweetspot liquidated in January, at which point British Cycling stepped in. They announced their intentions to put together a women’s race for June, admitting it would be a battle against time, but it appears they’ve won that battle with details of the race now coming together.

Read more: Four-day Tour of Britain Women appears on UCI calendar for 2024

The national governing body will also manage the equivalent men’s race, now known as the Tour of Britain Men , which will take place in September, also shortened from eight to six stages.

The Tour of Britain Women route

Returning to where the Women’s Tour left off in 2022, the peloton will take to the start line in Welshpool on 6 June for the longest stage of 2024, heading north to finish in Llandudno.

Stage 2 will remain in Wales, starting and finishing in Wrexham and featuring a challenging selection of climbs in the rolling terrain of the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley.

The penultimate stage will see the riders cross the border into England for a loop starting and finishing in Warrington, on a flatter day which will favour the sprinters.

The climbs return on the race’s final day, returning to Greater Manchester following the success of the men’s Tour of Britain stage there last summer. The flag will drop at British Cycling’s headquarters at the National Cycling Centre in Manchester before tackling several climbs around the north-west, finishing in Leigh in Wigan.

Speaking at the National Cycling Centre on Monday, race director Rod Ellingworth said: “It’s going to be a challenging course. Stage 1 is going to be the most challenging stage for sure, [followed by] stage 4. I think the GC will come down to the final stage. Weather will play a huge part – if it’s okay weather on stage 1, I think you’ll have a different race come stage 4 – but I think it’s pretty open.

Read more: Rod Ellingworth named as Tour of Britain race director

“Naturally the British roads offer lots of different opportunities – you don’t have the big mountains but there’s certainly some challenging roads, and you don’t need big climbs to make good bike racing either. Where we are in the timescale, I think we’ve got a really good four-day race.”

With all the racing compacted into north Wales and the north-west of England, there will be no long transfers between stages, with sustainability an important consideration for the organisers.

Specific route profiles and more details on the crucial climbs are to be announced in the coming weeks.

British hopeful and former world road race champion Lizzie Deignan , who will be racing as part of a Team GB squad rather than her WorldTour team Lidl-Trek, said: “I’m excited particularly about the harder races around Manchester, the hillier stuff, I think that’ll suit me and I’m excited to be able to race it with the GB team.

“Racing in Britain has always suited me because you have the home crowd, but also the terrain – wherever you are in the country – is relentless. People in the UK are brilliant sports fans and there’s this sense of excitement and thrill at being able to be part of a spectacle like a bike race.”

Designing the race

British Cycling’s chief executive Jon Dutton described this as a ‘reset and re-energise year’ for the race, particularly on the women’s side given the extremely compressed timescale for organising it. Having planned the route in ten weeks, he said: “It’s fair to say none of this has been easy but we believed in this race, these two races.

“I think we’ve got a bit of everything in the four stages, from the climbing to the flat, to sprinting. For the Tour of Britain Men, we’ve announced that we will reduce from eight to six stages, and less might be more – more high quality, compelling racing for those watching from the roadside and on broadcast. We want to stage racing in Wales, England and Scotland and we will satisfy that across the two races this year.”

The races will be funded by a mixture of public funding, broadcast revenue and sponsorships. Dutton said: “We accept that maybe in year one the race has to run at a deficit, but this is about taking a longer-term approach to it. We’re in the process of finalising [broadcast] contracts both domestically and internationally so we’re in a good place.

“We’re excited, we got what we realistically could have expected this year in four and six stages, but again that’s the reset year.

“These two races are the jewel in the crown for domestic, elite international road racing here in Great Britain. If you look at both women and men on the WorldTour, it’s quite astonishing from a GB perspective, and we want to make sure they have the opportunity to ride here on our roads. We’ve invited and all six British UCI Continental teams have accepted, and we also have a very strong GB women’s team that will race, so it will be a real celebration of British women’s international elite road racing.”

It is not yet clear which Women’s WorldTour teams will be in attendance, with participation not mandatory, and the last-minute confirmation of the race possibly a roadblock for some teams.

Future events

Work is already ongoing to expand the races next year, with the women’s edition here to stay after a turbulent few years.

“I think we can offer a brilliant, fixed point in the calendar for women’s racing,” Dutton added. “We’ve spoken to more than 50 local authorities since the start of January. What that’s done is landed where we are today with the Tour of Britain Women, where we will land in September with the Tour of Britain Men, but perhaps more excitingly, we almost have more start and finish locations than we have opportunities for next year, which is really exciting.”

This year’s route features four regular road stages, but a time trial will be re-incorporated in future editions. Ellingworth said: “To put those stages on takes a lot more work, so with the time restrictions that we had we thought, let’s keep it quite simple, let’s put on some good, safe racing and go from there.”

Dutton also indicated that another Tour de France Grand Départ in Great Britain could be in the pipeline.

“We remain absolutely committed to working with UK Sport and government partners. We appreciate what happened in 2014 was absolutely fantastic and we’d love to do everything we can to bring it back. We definitely have the same level of determination for that as we do for [the Tour of Britain races].”

The men’s race, slated for September, is also still in the works, in a similarly curtailed form at six stages compared to the usual eight.

“We want the focus now to be, up to June, on the Tour of Britain Women. The team are almost there with finalising the route for the men’s. We would anticipate somewhere between the end of the women’s race and the start of the Olympics when we will [announce the route],” Dutton said.

Lizzie Deignan

• Team Lidl-Trek
• Nationality United Kingdom
• UCI Wins 41
• Height 1.68m

Tour of Britain Women

• Dates 6 Jun - 9 Jun
• Race Length 0 kms
• Race Category Elite Women

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Britain 'will spend 2.5% of GDP on defence by 2030'

Rishi Sunak  today committed to spending 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence by 2030 as he holds talks with NATO allies.

The PM made the firm pledge as he visited Warsaw, warning that the world is the 'most volatile' for years and industry must go on a 'war footing'. 

But it is unlikely to appease many on the Conservative benches who have been pushing for at least 3 per cent. 

At a joint appearance with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg at a military base in the Polish capital, Mr Sunak said the UK defence budget will increase immediately and then rise steadily to reach £87billion at the end the decade.

He argued that the increase can be fully funded with no increase in borrowing or debt - suggesting that some of the outlay could be classified as international aid . 

Sounding the alarm that Vladimir Putin 'will not stop at the Polish border' if his assault on Ukraine is not thwarted, the premier has announced £500million in extra military funding and the UK's largest-ever donation of key equipment.

The 2.5 per cent commitment - higher than the 2 per cent threshold demanded of NATO countries - matches a promise made by Boris Johnson in 2022.

However, Mr Sunak and Jeremy Hunt had shied away from adopting the vow up to now, with the public finances under huge strain. 

At present, around 2.3 per cent of GDP annually is being spent, which equates to around £52billion. 

Tory MPs have been clamouring for more investment amid mounting threats from Russia and concerns about China's intentions. 

Mr Sunak will travel to Germany to hold one-on-one talks with Chancellor Olaf Scholz tomorrow.

'In a world that is the most dangerous it has been since the end of the Cold War, we cannot be complacent,' the PM said today, as he spoke alongside Mr Stoltenberg in a military hangar.

'As our adversaries align, we must do more to defend our country, our interests, and our values.

'That is why today I am announcing the biggest strengthening of our national defence for a generation.

'We will increase defence spending to a new baseline of 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2030 – a plan that delivers an additional £75billion for defence by the end of the decade and secures our place as by far the largest defence power in Europe.

'Today is a turning point for European security and a landmark moment in the defence of the United Kingdom.

'It is a generational investment in British security and British prosperity, which makes us safer at home and stronger abroad.'

Mr Sunak stressed the UK was 'not on the brink of war' but warned about the threats facing the world from 'an axis of authoritarian states' including Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.

'The danger they pose is not new, but what is new is that these countries or their proxies are causing more instability, more quickly, in more places at once,' he said.

'And they're increasingly acting together, making common cause in an attempt to reshape the world order.'

Mr Sunak said some people would think 'these are far away problems' but he said they 'pose real risks to the UK's security and prosperity'.

The premier also delivered a veiled warning to other NATO states, who were roundly berated by Donald Trump for failing to contribute enough to security.

Mr Sunak said: 'We cannot keep expecting America to pay any price or bear any burden if we ourselves are unwilling to make greater sacrifices for our own security.'

He added that Britain's new defence commitments could be made as a result of 'our management of the economy'.

'The bedrock of everything we want to achieve as a country is founded on having a strong economy,' the PM said. 

When asked about the potential impact of Mr Trump returning to the White House at November's US election, Mr Stoltenberg said: ' A strong NATO is good for Europe, but a strong NATO is also good for the US.

'And I expect that regardless of the outcome of the elections in the US later this year.  The US will remain a staunch and loyal ally.'

He added: 'The criticism we have heard from the US, not only from former president Donald Trump but also from others… has not primarily been a criticism against NATO allies.

'It has been a criticism against Nato allies not spending enough on NATO. That is changing.'

In a signal to other NATO allies, Mr Stoltenberg had earlier claimed the UK was 'leading by example' with its commitments to NATO.

But the NATO secretary general did not respond to a question of how reassured he could be by Britain's announcement of increased defence spending when there might be a Labour government taking office later this year.

Mr Sunak said it 'wouldn't be appropriate' to draw Mr Stoltenberg into the UK's domestic politics.

The PM's announcement today was warmly welcomed by James Heappey, who stood down as armed forces minister last month amid reports he was frustrated over Mr Sunak's refusal to give a significant cash boost to the military.

'This is ENORMOUS news and hugely needed in the MoD,' Mr Heappey posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Former PM Theresa May said: 'This is the right decision — not just for the UK but for the wider NATO alliance.

'At a time when our values are under threat, it's vital we invest in our hard power to prepare for a more dangerous future.'

Earlier this month, Mr Johnson suggested the UK Government should go even further, with a rise in defence spending to 3 per cent by 2030. 

The former PM told a conference in Canada: 'Now is the moment for an even more robust posture. We all need to recognise the world is more uncertain, more dangerous.

'We all need, frankly, to be spending more on defence – that goes for the UK as well as everybody else.'

Calling for Ukraine to be allowed to join NATO and be given the tools to defeat Russia on the battlefield, Mr Johnson insisted that the country had chosen its path to be a 'free, independent European nation'.

Responding to the PM's announcement today, Labour's John Healey, the shadow defence secretary, said: 'As Keir Starmer recently set out, Labour wants to see a fully funded plan to reach 2.5 per cent.

'But the Tories have shown time and time again that they cannot be trusted on defence and we will examine the detail of their announcement closely.

'The British public will judge ministers by what they do not what they say.

'Since 2010, the Conservatives have wasted more than £15billion mismanaging defence procurement, shrunk the Army to its smallest size since Napoleon, missed their recruitment targets every year, and allowed morale to fall to record lows.

'Labour will conduct a strategic defence and security review in the first year in government to get to grips with the threats we face, the state of our Armed Forces, and the resources required.'