UK defence secretary promises delayed investment plan before Nato summit

Dan Jarvis, speaking at a thinktank conference today, said: ‘I’m now working to finalise and publish the defence investment plan before I travel to Ankara.’ Photograph: Ben Whitley/PA View image in fullscreen Dan Jarvis, speaking at a thinktank conference today, said: ‘I’m now working to finalise and publish the defence investment plan before I travel to Ankara.’ Photograph: Ben Whitley/PA UK defence secretary promises delayed investment plan before Nato summit Dan Jarvis, who took role earlier this month, is said to have secured billion more for plan than predecessor Dan Jarvis, the new defence secretary, promised to publish the delayed defence investment plan (Dip) before the Nato summit in a fortnight amid indications he has already secured around a billion more than his predecessor, John Healey. Haggling between the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Treasury is continuing – while a source in Andy Burnham’s team said he was happy for a final deal to be concluded while Keir Starmer serves out his last days as prime minister. Jarvis, speaking at a military thinktank conference, said: “I’ve had 12 days, but I’ve made the most of all of them, and I’m now working to finalise and publish the Dip before I travel to Ankara with the prime minister.” The Nato summit in the Turkish capital will be held on 7 and 8 July, in one of Starmer’s final international engagements as prime minister. Burnham would take over at the end of the following week on 17 July if there is no contest. The minister emphasised that he would not get the deal done “at any cost” – but he also acknowledged that “no single defence review or funding settlement … can erase the legacy of accumulated neglect” from previous governments. Healey resigned earlier this month after he failed to secure more than £13.5bn to plug an £18bn gap in funding for the plan, which covers the department’s major capital programmes for the next 10 years. Jarvis is understood to have already obtained at least £14bn as part of the negotiations. But it is not clear that Jarvis has obtained any more money for the total defence budget. Starmer had offered to increase it by £2bn to 2.68% of GDP by 2030. Nato has a long-term target for allies to reach 3.5% of GDP by 2035, but there was concern at the MoD that the proposed settlement would leave too great a commitment to be met after the next general election. “We’ve got a job of work to do to map out that trajectory to get us to 3% and then get us up to 3.5%,” Jarvis said, adding that it was a conversation he hoped to have with Burnham during the next Whitehall spending review. “My job is to carry the argument on to the next prime minister, to make sure that in that next spending review defence is the number one priority,” said Jarvis, who hopes to keep his job if Burnham takes control at No 10. Little is known about Burnham’s thinking on defence, and there are worries in the MoD that the former mayor of Manchester would reopen any defence spending deal agreed in