Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis has said he is confident that Andy Burnham will prioritise defence investment, despite leaving the next prime minister a £4.7 billion funding gap. Speaking to reporters during a visit to missile manufacturer Cambridge Aerospace on Wednesday, Jarvis stated he had the “assurance that, as prime minister, Andy Burnham will make sure that we’ve got the investment coming into defence”.
However, Jarvis acknowledged there would need to be “conversations” with Burnham, who is expected to succeed Sir Keir Starmer in less than three weeks. He vowed to “fight hard for defence” in those discussions.
Defence Investment Plan details
Tuesday’s Defence Investment Plan (Dip) saw Jarvis secure a £15 billion uplift in defence spending, largely funded by cuts to other departments’ capital budgets. However, the Treasury has not yet outlined how it will fund almost a third of the increase, leaving £4.7 billion of funding to be determined at the next budget.
This decision presents a potential headache for Burnham as he prepares his first budget, facing a choice between higher taxes, increased borrowing, or further spending cuts to plug the gap. Jarvis defended postponing some funding decisions, calling it “not unreasonable” that “those kind of commitments are made in the context of a major fiscal event”.
Communication with Burnham
Prospective prime minister Andy Burnham was briefed on the Dip before its publication, but it is understood he was not informed about the need to find an additional tranche of funding in his first budget. Defence minister Luke Pollard suggested Burnham only learned of the £4.7 billion gap when Treasury figures were published on Tuesday.
Pollard 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.” However, he later declined to answer questions on when Burnham had been told, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he was “not involved with those conversations”.
Funding sources and cuts
In a written statement to Parliament, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said only two-thirds of the £15 billion sum – £10.3 billion – had been identified, while the remaining £4.7 billion would be “confirmed at Budget 2026, in a fair and balanced way”. Downing Street insisted the plan was “credible” but declined to “get ahead of” the next budget on how the gap would be filled.
Jarvis denied the funding gap was a “hand grenade” for Burnham and his new chancellor, insisting it was “absolutely the opposite”. He sidestepped repeated questions on whether Burnham had been clearly informed about the gap, pointing to Sir Keir’s focus on a “smooth transition” of power.
Reeves said the Treasury would focus on finding “efficiencies” and cancelling or delaying “lower priority programmes”, while emphasising the Government would not cut day-to-day spending to pay for defence. Transport and energy budgets will face larger cuts than other departments, but Downing Street could not specify which projects would be scrapped or scaled back.
Impact on specific projects
Asked if there was a list of projects to be cut, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said details would be provided “by the autumn”. The spokesman also declined to rule out cuts to some hospital building programmes, but confirmed that plans to remove dangerous Raac concrete from hospitals and the first wave of the New Hospitals Programme would proceed.
The Dip includes billions more for next-generation stealth jets, the largest ever investment in drone warfare, and confirmation that the UK will buy F-35A planes capable of carrying nuclear bombs. However, older equipment, including two Type 23 frigates and older Chinook and Wildcat helicopters, will be retired.
The plan was originally due last year but was delayed partly due to Whitehall wrangling over money. The funding in the Dip is on top of the £270 billion already promised for defence from 2025/26 to 2028/29.
