Andy Burnham must decide whether he wants to be a “Churchillian” figure willing to fund what the UK military needs to prepare for war, a former Army chief has told The i Paper.
Military insiders are on edge over what will happen to defence spending to ready Britain’s Armed Forces for conflict if the new Labour MP for Makerfield succeeds Sir Keir Starmer as Prime Minister.
The former Manchester mayor has so far refused to say whether he would spend more than the £13.5bn currently on the table from Starmer and Rachel Reeves to fund the Defence Investment Plan (DIP), claiming only that he is “not squeamish” about cutting the welfare bill to fund defence.
Lord Dannatt, who was head of the British Army between 2006 and 2009, said if he became prime minister Burnham would be “foolish in the extreme” if he tried to assert that the UK is safe with the existing funding settlement.
Lord Dannatt told The i Paper: “Assuming Andy Burnham finds his way into No 10 sooner or later, he will not be able to duck confronting the calls for increased defence spending.”
