Days after John Healey resigned as defence secretary over a funding row, the Culture Secretary acknowledged that negotiations inside the government are still “happening as we speak” – an admission that has intensified the political storm around the UK’s delayed defence investment plan.
Lisa Nandy told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that conversations about defence spending were “not finished” and that she was talking to officials in her own department about making money available. She rejected suggestions that the prime minister had been forced to re-examine the plan only because of the resignations, insisting Sir Keir Starmer had been clear that defence was the government’s first responsibility and they had to “meet this moment”.
“Defence spending talks ongoing after John Healey resigned over funding row, says Lisa Nandy.”
“We are looking very carefully at how we achieve it,” Nandy said. “These conversations are not finished, this negotiation is happening as we speak.”
The defence investment plan – which sets out how new military equipment and infrastructure will be paid for over the next decade – was due last autumn but has been repeatedly delayed. Downing Street said it would still be published before the Nato summit next month, but not in the coming week.
Healey and his junior minister Al Carns quit on Thursday, accusing the government of failing to provide enough funding. Allies of the former defence secretary told the BBC that “more money is coming, but only as a result of Healey resigning… this is another unbelievable U-turn”.
Carns later told the same programme that the country had to have “a really honest, open and courageous debate about where the money is going now”.
Dan Jarvis, the new defence secretary, said he had a responsibility to ensure the armed forces got the equipment and funding they needed. Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph, he described the challenge as “at a point of constrained fiscal resource” and said he would “be working with my colleagues across government to make sure that we’re in a position to do that”.
Jarvis is currently looking at the plan “in current draft form” and holding discussions with the chancellor and the prime minister, Nandy added.
Conservative shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge said his party was willing to work with the government to find the money, proposing cuts to the welfare budget, restoring the two-child benefit cap and reducing spending on net zero energy policies.
In his resignation letter, Healey accused Starmer of failing to provide the money required to “defend the country at a time of rising threats”. His departure – from one of Labour’s most consistently loyal ministers – has forced the question of defence funding to the top of the political agenda, with negotiations still unresolved.