Keir Starmer may be forced to use private capital to help fund the long-awaited Defence Investment Plan (DIP), after military insiders warned the public sector was on the verge of “exhausting itself”, The i Paper understands.
The Prime Minister has been locked in a battle with Defence Secretary John Healey and other Cabinet ministers over how to fund the blueprint to equip Britain for war, which is expected to cost between £15bn and £18bn.
Wrangling over funding is believed to be holding up publication of the DIP, which was originally due last autumn. It is now expected within days but has not yet been signed off.
Shorts
Starmer has reportedly been asking Cabinet ministers for 1 per cent cuts to their capital budgets to fund £6bn to go towards the plan, with transport and energy security departments said to be facing even deeper reductions.
