Keir Starmer is expected to reject Andy Burnham’s call for the UK to join a new multilateral defence bank championed by the Canadian prime minister Mark Carney, just weeks before Burnham is due to take over as prime minister. One of the most arresting political flashpoints of the summer will play out at next month’s NATO summit in Ankara, where the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank (DSRB) is set to be launched — without British backing, according to Downing Street insiders.
Two allies of Burnham, who will succeed Starmer in mid-July barring an upset, said he and his advisers support the DSRB and see the Ankara meeting as the best chance to sign it. The incoming Labour leader faces the same spending squeeze that has dogged Starmer’s final months, forcing him to cut other departmental budgets to plug gaps in defence. His team views the bank as a worthwhile way to inject more money into rearmament.
“Starmer expected to reject Burnham's plea for UK to join Canadian-led defence bank before Burnham becomes PM.”
But Starmer and the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, have long been cool on the idea. Despite overtures from Ottawa, the Treasury is now focused on merging the DSRB with the UK’s Multilateral Defence Mechanism (MDM) with Finland and the Netherlands. Reeves told the Commons this week: “We are … working closely with Canada on how we can bring the MDM and DSRB together so we can have one model that helps us better fund defense in our country and across Europe.”
Supporters of the DSRB say a merger would delay it beyond the Ankara summit. One MP familiar with the discussions said the two plans are “working on completely different timescales” — the DSRB is “ready to go”, whereas “there is no detail on MDM at all, so it's impossible to talk about merging without stalling DSRB.” An official from one of the UK’s partner countries in the MDM confirmed it was “very much still in the early stages.”
A defence industry representative said Number 10 was “wholly focused” on delivering the long-delayed Defence Investment Plan and inclined to leave new defence financing initiatives to Burnham. Downing Street declined to comment, and a Treasury spokesperson said the department would not comment on hypotheticals.
The standoff comes as Burnham’s own political stock soars. His recent victory in the Makerfield constituency — a post-industrial area where Reform had dominated local elections — defied predictions of a rightward shift. Polling shows Burnham formed a coalition of urban progressives and soft-Conservative and Reform-types, voters alienated by Labour’s move towards the “lanyard class.” The sociologist Sacha Hillhorst has shown that Reform’s 2024 vote was unstable, comprising ex-Labour and ex-Tory voters united by opposition to immigration, a sense of decline, and a desire for political renewal. Burnham’s easy-going manner and local popularity — contrasted with Reform candidate Kenyon’s woeful Question Time performance — turned a potential loss into a triumph.
Whether that popularity will translate into a shift on defence once Burnham enters Downing Street remains an open question. For now, Starmer seems determined to leave his successor with the unfinished business of the DSRB — and a spending crisis he has been unable to solve.