Burnham left with £4.7bn bill for Starmer’s new defence investment plan

Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves visiting Malloy Aeronautics in Berkshire on Tuesday, where the prime minister announced extra spending on drones. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/AFP/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves visiting Malloy Aeronautics in Berkshire on Tuesday, where the prime minister announced extra spending on drones. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/AFP/Getty Images Burnham left with £4.7bn bill for Starmer’s new defence investment plan Ally of PM-in-waiting says four-year boost for the armed forces is an ‘unexploded bomb’ Britain has finally grasped the nettle on defence, but tough choices lie ahead Andy Burnham will have to find an extra £4.7bn for defence in his first budget, after Keir Starmer announced a £298bn defence investment plan (Dip) without having fully identified how it will be funded. Sources close to the Makerfield MP said he would not try to renegotiate the Dip after the outgoing prime minister announced its details at a press conference on Tuesday. Those close to the likely next prime minister acknowledged he would have to find nearly £5bn more than expected to fund the plans over the next four years, which one Burnham ally likened to an “unexploded bomb”. The Guardian understands the Makerfield MP was not told about the funding gap when he was briefed on the plan. A defence insider said it was “madness after all that wrangling to have left a £4.7bn black hole for someone else to fix”, while the Conservatives described the plan as a “delayed-action poison pill” for Burnham. Starmer said on Tuesday the long-delayed Dip would make Britain safer by “driving a generational transformation of our armed forces”. Overall defence spending will rise marginally from 2.6% of GDP in 2027 to 2.7%, or nearly £80bn, by 2030. Starmer said that would put the UK “on a trajectory” to hit 3% in the next parliament, although it remains well below a Nato target of 3.5% by 2035. It counts as a £1.5bn improvement obtained by the new defence secretary, Dan Jarvis, who is fighting to keep his job after Starmer leaves, compared with the £13.5bn offered to John Healey, who resigned in protest at the money he had been offered. Starmer told a press conference at a drone manufacturer in Berkshire: “It focuses our resources squarely on the readiness of our armed forces, reversing the cuts of recent years, prioritising the availability of our forces and assets, rebuilding ammunition stockpiles, ensuring we are ready to fight and defend our nation and better prepared to win.” The plan, which was due to be published nearly a year ago, puts drones, fighter jets and nuclear weapons at the heart of the country’s military capability. View image in fullscreen The defence plans include the purchase of 12 Lockheed Martin F-35A jets capable of carrying nuclear weapons. Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images The overall package will cost £298bn over the next four years, £15bn of which was newly announced on Tuesday. It includes: £47bn on n