Andy Burnham only discovered he was facing a £4.7bn black hole to fill in Sir Keir Starmer’s defence spending plan on the day it was published, a minister has suggested.
The outgoing prime minister unveiled £15bn of spending over the next four years to support his defence investment plan (DIP), which he promised would reverse the “corrosive hollowing out” of the armed forces.
But in a written statement to parliament, chancellor Rachel Reeves said only two-thirds of the sum – £10.3bn – had been identified, while the remaining £4.7bn would be “confirmed at Budget 2026, in a fair and balanced way”.
This means likely successor Andy Burnham will be left to find the additional funds in his first Budget, despite not being told about the financial details.
Defence minister Luke Pollard said that he himself had only seen the funding breakdown on Tuesday, the day of the DIP’s publication.
Asked whether Mr Burnham had seen the financial breakdown before, he told Sky News: “Downing Street have a close dialogue with Andy’s team … I understand they’ve been keeping him close to the process, and told him yesterday when the Treasury published the statement and the breakdown of the financial costs.”
Asked to clarify if Mr Burnham only saw the financial breakdown on Tuesday, he added: “So I saw the breakdown of the £15bn for the first time yesterday when it was published by the Treasury, I understand that Downing Street are keeping Andy’s team involved with the process.”
The defence minister insisted it’s “not unusual” for governments to make announcements then complete details at the next budget.
Pressed on why this is different to the previous Conservative government’s decision to do so, he said: “They left a huge in-year black hole.”
Max Werner, senior research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said the decision meant there would be “further impacts on other areas of spending, tax or borrowing on top of those set out in today’s announcements – implying one key early decision for the next prime minister”.
Former Tory defence secretary Sir Liam Fox accused outgoing Sir Keir Starmer of leaving a "poisoned chalice" for his imminent successor, telling Times Radio: “Well, when Keir Starmer talks about his legacy, certainly politically his legacy is to give a poisoned chalice to his successor. Because not only is he £13bn adrift from what the government said it needed for defence, but it's actually £5bn short of what the Prime Minister promised today.”
Defence minister Dan Jarvis denied the funding gap was a hand grenade for the Makerfield MP – Sir Keir’s likely successor – and his new chancellor, insisting it was “absolutely the opposite”.
He sidestepped repeated questions on whether it had been made clear to Mr Burnham that he was being left with a funding gap.
“Of course we’ve been talking to Andy Burnham and his team about this plan,” the new defence secretary told BBC Newsnight, pointing to Sir Keir’s focus on a “smooth transition” of power.
“Andy Burnham has an absolute commitment to safeguarding our nation and ensuring that we’ve got the resources in place to defend our nation in the way that we think is necessary.”
John Healey – who quit as defence secretary earlier this month after accusing the prime minister of being “unwilling to commit the resources” needed to keep Britain safe – suggested the final funding settlement of 2.7 per cent of GDP was not enough and urged the government to set out a target date for the UK to spend 3 per cent on defence.
While the £15bn of funding allocated in the long-delayed DIP is £1.5bn more than the £13.5bn offer that was presented to Mr Healey a few weeks ago, it still falls well short of the £28bn officials wanted.
