Defence spending was part of what tore the Starmer Cabinet apart. Tensions between the Ministry of Defence and the Treasury exploded into the open when John Healey resigned as defence secretary this month, over what he said was dangerously inadequate military funding plans in the upcoming Defence Investment Plan (DIP).
He was followed out the door by the Armed Forces minister, Al Carns, who said this week that he “watched us write a defence plan for a world that no longer exists”.
The plan, due to be released in the next fortnight, will outline the future of military funding, showing which capabilities will be more heavily funded and which will lose out. Many in the defence industry are not optimistic.
Shorts
New spending plans are currently understood to stand at around £13.5bn – well short of the £28bn funding black hole identified by the Ministry of Defence. But insiders said there are indications that the new Defence Secretary, Dan Jarvis, may have squeezed extra money from the Treasury.
