Starmer's defence plan leaves Burnham facing £4.7bn funding gap

ANDY BURNHAM will have to find an additional £4.7 billion to close a funding gap in the government's defence plans if, as expected, he becomes prime minister later this month.

The money would have to come through deeper spending cuts or higher taxes.

Prime minister Keir Starmer on Tuesday unveiled a long-delayed defence plan aimed at preparing Britain's armed forces for war amid growing security threats and warnings that Russia could attack a NATO member as soon as 2030.

The plan includes an additional £15bn in defence spending. However, documents published alongside it showed that around a third of the funding has yet to be identified and will need to be found in the budget later this year.

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"It's not unusual for governments to make announcements saying this is what we'll spend, and then to complete the details of that at the next budget," Luke Pollard, minister of defence procurement, told Sky News on Wednesday.

Burnham is widely expected to become Britain's prime minister later in July. His view of Starmer's defence plan is not yet known.

"I know that if Andy Burnham becomes the prime minister ... that he will take national security as seriously as Keir has taken it," Pollard said.

The plan was also criticised by opposition politicians and former military chiefs for not setting out when defence spending would reach 3 per cent of GDP, on the way to meeting Britain's NATO commitment to spend 3.5 per cent of GDP by 2035.

Starmer defended the costings on Tuesday, saying much of the additional funding would come from reallocating spending from other government departments.

The plans have also drawn criticism for cutting funding earmarked for road and energy projects, an issue for a government elected in 2024 on promises of long-term infrastructure investment.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies, a think tank, said the £1.2 billion a year needed to fund the current plan meant the next prime minister would soon face difficult choices.

"There will 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," the IFS said.

"Defence spending will likely remain one of the biggest fiscal pressures facing the UK in the medium term," it added, saying that reaching 3.5 per cent in 2035 would require an additional £25bn a year.