The chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, has told ministers to “simply apologise” rather than defend the repeated delay of the government’s Defence Investment Plan, warning that the absence has already done “damage … to the nation’s credibility, to its safety, to its armed forces, and to certainty within its entire defence industrial base”.
The DIP, originally expected last autumn, has been postponed several times amid warnings of a huge funding gap over the next four years. It is now due to be published before a Nato summit early next month – a deadline the prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, has said he is “determined to” meet.
“MPs say delays to UK defence plan have damaged national credibility, urge apology.”
But the committee’s report, published Sunday, was scathing. “Whatever the content of the Dip when it eventually does appear,” Sir Geoffrey said, “excuses to the effect of ‘taking the time to get the details right’ simply do not cut it.” He added that ministers should “ask themselves what message the bureaucratic drift of the past months has given to the public, as well as the UK’s allies and its adversaries”.
The delay has particular significance for Ukraine, to which the UK has so far committed £13bn in military support. General Sir Richard Shirreff, who chairs an advisory council for Ukraine’s armed forces, told BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House that “it’s going to be very difficult for the prime minister to look President Zelensky in the eye” after having “failed to put together” the promised investment plan. Starmer is due to host Zelensky alongside France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Friedrich Merz at No 10 on Sunday evening.
The Ministry of Defence insisted the plan would “fix the outdated, overcommitted and underfunded programme we inherited”. A spokesperson said the government was working hard to finalise it, and pointed to a “generational increase” in defence spending of an extra £270bn across this parliament.
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy told the BBC on Sunday that the plan “will be absolutely clear” before the Nato summit, and that “the money will be found” to meet spending commitments. Asked if he would cede some of his own budget for defence, the justice secretary said defence was the “first purpose” of the nation.
The PAC report also noted that the MoD “has not yet decided which capabilities, infrastructure and people it requires to transform the armed forces to be warfighting-ready within the budget available”, nor had it “secured the cross-government agreement that the plan needs”. Sir Geoffrey warned that the delay undermined the UK’s credibility with allies – and that a minister should “simply apologise” rather than defend it.