See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred SourceBy OLIVIA CHRISTIE, NEWS REPORTER Published: 19:19 BST, 27 June 2026 | Updated: 19:39 BST, 27 June 2026
Andy Burnham will 'almost certainly' be the next Prime Minister, Rachel Reeves has said as she defended her record as Chancellor.Speaking during a visit to Ukraine, Ms Reeves also said the Government's defence investment plan would be published 'imminently'. She said it would include more spending and set out how Britain would prepare for future conflicts.The Chancellor, who is widely tipped to be sacked in next month's reshuffle, also defended her time in the Treasury. She said she had overseen £120 billion of investment in defence, energy, digital infrastructure and transport links across the UK. Ms Reeves has worked closely with Sir Keir Starmer for years and is the second most unpopular politician in the country after the Prime Minister.She has also been at the centre of some of Labour's most controversial decisions, including the cut to winter fuel payments and the botched welfare reforms that sparked a Labour mutiny.Earlier this week, she said Mr Burnham would be 'great in No.10', in what critics viewed as a last-ditch attempt to shore up her position.Setting out her defence plans, she told reporters: 'The defence investment plan hasn't yet been published, and what I can tell people is that plan will involve more money.'I'm already the Chancellor that's overseen the biggest uplift in defence spending since the end of the Cold War, but recognising the scale of the challenge we face today, we need to increase that amount further. Speaking on a visit to Ukraine, the Chancellor, who is widely tipped for the sack next month, defended her spending record in the Treasury'We'll be doing so in setting that out imminently, and certainly ahead of the Nato summit in Ankara, but the new prime minister, who is almost certainly going to be Andy Burnham, will absolutely stand by Ukraine as the UK has done both as a Government and as a people ever since Russia's invasion.'She added that the plan would be 'a detailed account of how we're going to spend that additional money to meet the scale of the challenges we face today, and crucially, the defence investment plan will be about the wars of tomorrow and today, not of the past'.'And so one of the things that I've been doing whilst I've been here in Kyiv is meeting some of the British and Ukrainian tech and defence companies who are really innovating on the front line on an almost daily basis, and it's important that when we publish our defence investment plan, we learn from the front line, because the nature of warfare is changing at every moment, and we need to equip ourselves for the battles of the future.'Asked about problems over funding, she said 'one of the things that I'm most proud of as Chancellor of the Exchequer' was 'being the person that's overseen the biggest uplift in defence spending since the end of the Cold War'.Rachel Reeves said she had helped to increase investment in infrastructure such as transport connections 'not just in London and the southeast, but in the North of England too'. Asked about her future in the Treasury, the Chancellor told reporters: 'The decisions around ministerial appointments are up to the Prime Minister.'I'm not going to pre-empt those, but I'm proud of what I've managed to achieve'. She cited things including 'growing the economy, lifting half a million children out of poverty', and 'increasing the national minimum wage'. She added: 'And increasing by 120 billion the amount of investment that we're putting into our economy, whether that's in defence, energy infrastructure, digital infrastructure or new transport connections in our cities and towns across the UK and crucially not just in London and the southeast, but in the North of England too.'
