Keir Starmer faced a three-pronged attack in parliament on Tuesday from his former defence secretary, a former defence minister and the country’s most senior military officer – all accusing him of leaving British troops underfunded and unable to carry out the operations he expects of them.
John Healey, who quit as defence secretary last week, used his resignation speech to say the defence investment plan (Dip) fell “well short of what is required”, adding that there was “no date for reaching 3%, no path to 3.5% by 2030”. The plan is expected to provide an additional £13.5bn to the Ministry of Defence over four years.
“Three senior defence figures accused Starmer of underfunding the military in parliament on Tuesday.”
“I took the decision to resign with the very greatest regret and reluctance,” Healey told the Commons. “In time, I believe it will be seen as necessary in securing the future of our armed forces and of our alliances.” Warning that the moment demanded boldness, he said: “This is not the moment for calibration or incremental change. This means bigger politics, bolder priorities, harder choices, and Britain’s challenge now is the transformation and the rearmament of our armed forces.”
Healey’s comments were echoed by Al Carns, the former defence minister who quit hours after him. “The reality is, we are spending too much time preparing for last year’s war, not tomorrow’s,” Carns said. “I urge the house to push for transformation, push hard, and push for delivery this side of 2030.”
Speaking earlier to parliament’s defence select committee, the chief of the defence staff, Rich Knighton, said Britain would have to “dial back” on military operations and exercises in Europe, Ukraine and the Middle East if the MoD did not receive more funding. “We’ll have to dial back our activities; our exercise, operational activity, if the level of resource funding that is available to us does not increase,” he said.
Starmer, speaking to reporters at the G7, defended the Dip, saying his government had already increased defence spending from 2.3% to 2.6% of GDP – the biggest rise since the 1980s – meaning £270bn would be spent this parliament. He insisted the plan would “put even more money” into capability and that he had taken “difficult decisions” to reallocate money from other departments. He confirmed that Dan Jarvis, the new defence secretary, would have input before the final version of the Dip was published.
But Healey, pointing to the Treasury’s refusal to accelerate spending, delivered a stark warning: “Our adversaries don’t follow timetables set by the Treasury.”