Starmer dithering over defence spending, says Badenoch

Kemi Badenoch has accused the prime minister of “dithering” over defence spending, amid a battle within government over how new kit will be paid for.

The Conservative leader said Sir Keir Starmer had been “paralysed” over the issue due to Labour MPs’ unwillingness to cut back “bloated” spending on welfare.

She pressed him to rule out further tax rises to pay for a funding boost to the Ministry of Defence (MoD), which is seeking extra cash to fund a much-delayed investment plan originally due last autumn.

Sir Keir Starmer said the plan would be published before a Nato summit next month, and accused the Tories of failing the armed forces in their 14 years in power.

The defence investment plan is due to set out how new equipment and defence infrastructure will be funded over the coming decade, following a review of Britain’s capabilities in June last year.

But publication of the blueprint has been delayed after the MoD reportedly asked for an extra £28bn over the next four years, following an internal assessment last year.

Reports have suggested the prime minister is preparing to unveil an additional £13.5bn after negotiations with the department, possibly in the coming days.

Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle warned ministers against publishing the plan when MPs are not in Westminster, saying it would be a “disgrace” for MPs not to be able to question ministers immediately.

At the start of an urgent question he told the Commons: “There are strong rumours that the government is going to produce its defence investment plan on Friday. That would be an utter disgrace and an utter kick in the face to the members of this House.”

But Defence Secretary John Healey has suggested the defence investment plan would not be published this Friday when Parliament is not sitting.

Speaking after a meeting with the Australian defence and foreign ministers, Healey emphasised that he was a parliamentarian before he was a minister.

“The Speaker asserts the right of Parliament,” he told reporters. “Parliament is there for the people and when we publish really significant reports from the defence investment plan, we respect parliament.”

This means the earliest the plan could be published may be next Monday before the prime minister heads to France for a summit of G7 nations.

Earlier, at Prime Minister’s Questions, Badenoch called on Sir Keir to rule out raising taxes to pay for any potential funding boost, after Chancellor Rachel Reeves said on Tuesday that government borrowing “cannot always be the answer”.

The Tory leader told MPs: “He has only three options: cutting spending, more borrowing, or higher taxes. We know that the chancellor wants to put up tax to pay for it”.

“The reason that he’s dithering is because he doesn’t know where the money is coming from,” she said.

She added that ex-Labour defence secretary Lord Robertson had suggested cuts to benefits as a route to fund extra funding, but the prime minister was “too weak to face down his backbenchers” to deliver the savings.

Turkey summit

In response, the prime minister accused the Conservatives of failing the armed forces during their time in office, pointing to cuts to the Navy’s minesweeping capabilities and missed Army recruitment targets.

“When they were in office, they didn’t reform welfare or invest in our armed services,” he added.

He said officials were still “working through the details” of the investment plan, which would be published before a Nato summit in Turkey next month.

The MoD’s budget is due to rise by 3.6% in real terms by 2029, under departmental spending plans fixed last year.

At the time, Reeves insisted that these departmental spending settlements would not be renegotiated. However, she now says global instability means extra defence spending will be required.

According to the Times, Downing Street has asked departments to identify cuts of at least 1% to their long-term investment budgets, risking a clash with cabinet ministers over how extra defence spending is found.

The investment plan is meant to replace annual decade-long “equipment plans” which were released on a rolling yearly basis until 2022, when the previous government halted publication amid rising inflation.

An analysis published by the MoD in December 2023, under the previous government, found the department’s most recent equipment plan was forecast to exceed its budget by £16.9bn.

A report by MPs published the following year said the biggest cause of that shortfall came from spiralling costs from maintaining the UK’s nuclear weapons system, which has been paid from the MoD budget since 2010.