Starmer challenged over defence investment plan delay

Sir Keir Starmer has failed to say when the government's military funding plan will be published, amid an escalating row over UK defence spending.

The prime minister is facing growing pressure to set out when the much-delayed blueprint will appear, as talks with the Treasury continue.

It comes after the Labour peer who carried out a review of defence capability last year launched a scathing public attack on the hold-up.

Former defence secretary and Nato chief Lord Robertson accused the government of "corrosive complacency" amid rising threats around the world.

Ministers have not denied reports that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has requested billions in further funding to buy equipment following an internal assessment by officials at the department last year.

It came in the wake of Lord Robertson's review in June, setting out plans for extra ammunition, next-generation fast jets, drones, and new attack submarines to upgrade Britain's war-fighting capabilities.

Negotiations with the Treasury over funding this have held up the publication of a 10-year defence investment plan, which was originally due in autumn last year.

At Prime Minister's Questions, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch pushed Sir Keir to publish the plan before the current session of Parliament ends in the coming weeks.

The prime minister replied that it would be published "as soon as possible" but declined to offer a specific date.

He hit back at Lord Robertson's criticism, adding he did not agree with his comments and adding that Labour had increased defence funding, including by making the "difficult decision" to cut spending on overseas aid last year.

Sir Keir also said his party had inherited "uncosted and undeliverable" investment plans from the Conservatives, pointing to cuts to Navy frigates and minehunters under the party's watch.

In reply, Badenoch accused the prime minister of "prosecuting past governments" rather than reassuring defence companies of "what he is going to do".

In a subsequent statement in Parliament, Defence Minister Luke Pollard insisted the government was "not waiting" on the investment plan to announce further defence projects, but was "working flat out to" get the document published.

But he faced pressure from Labour MP Tan Dhesi, who chairs the defence select committee, who warned that further delay to the plan risked "further damage to our defence-industrial base".

Speaking to the BBC's Politics Live, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy conceded the government needed to find additional funding for defence, and this would involve "difficult decisions" on public spending.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves set out multi-year budgets for all government departments last year, and has ruled out changing the UK's fiscal rules to fund any increase.

The Conservatives argue extra defence spending could be funded by cuts to the welfare budget, whilst the Liberal Democrats have suggested special 'war bonds', lasting two to three years, to raise extra money.

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

The investment plan is meant to replace decade-long "equipment plans" released on a rolling yearly basis until 2022, when the then-Conservative government halted publication whilst it assessed the effect of "extraordinary inflation" on its plans.

An analysis published by the department in December 2023 found that the MoD'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 since 2010 has been paid from the MoD budget, alongside inflation.