Treasury minister: Meeting Nato defence pledge is Burnham’s job
The Treasury has not evaluated how the government could reach its pledge to spend 3.5 per cent of gross domestic product on defence by 2035, according to a cabinet minister, who said it was a job for the “next government” to carry out.
Speaking to a parliamentary committee, chief secretary to the Treasury Lucy Rigby said there would have to be “greater public discussion” about the trade-offs required to meet ministers’ ambitious promise.
But asked whether the Treasury was assessing ways to find the cash required to meet the 3.5 per cent target, Rigby told MPs: “No, is the short answer. And obviously we don’t know when the next Budget will be, and the next spending review has to be in 2027.
“We are going to see a new Prime Minister who will be in place at the point of the next spending review,” she added. “And so it will be for a government led by the next Prime Minister to make these decisions around relative level of spend.”
Keir Starmer made boosting defence spending one of the defining measures of his premiership, promising an additional £15bn for the armed forces over the next four years as part of the government’s long-awaited Defence Investment Plan (Dip).
But the freshly inked strategy, which was published last week, has already been plagued by a barrage of criticism and controversy. Defence secretary John Healey and junior minister Al Cairns both resigned over the terms signed off by the Prime Minister, after losing an almighty tussle between the Ministry of Defence and Treasury.
Defence plan fails to ‘commit resources needed to defend the country’
In his resignation letter Healey wrote that the Starmer had been “unable, and the Treasury has been unwilling to commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country”.
Former Nato chief Lord Robertson also denounced the plan, saying it failed to meet the threats now facing the UK that are “now bigger, more serious and earlier than we had anticipated”.
The plan, which was boosted by a £1.5bn uplift in the wake of Healey’s resignation, omitted any blueprint to fund the Prime Minister’s long-term promise to spend 3.5 per cent of the UK’s gross domestic product on defence in the next parliament.
The commitment is expected to cost an additional £40bn per year – the equivalent of four pence extra income tax. But speaking to MPs on Wednesday, Rigby confirmed that decisions funding the move to meet Starmer’s Nato commitment would be done at the next spending review in 2027.
The Treasury minister also defended the government’s decision to leave a £5bn shortfall within the defence plan, the funds for which would need to be found at this autumn’s Budget.
“It’s not uncommon of governments of any colour to announce things outside of a fiscal event, and say, ‘And this money will be identified at the next fiscal event.'” she said. “To take an example, the Send [special educational needs] reforms we announced in February earlier this year – [we said] that is going to be announced at Budget.”
She also cited the Conservatives’ pledge to fund a £20.5bn five-year settlement for the NHS at a future fiscal event.
Prime Minister-in-waiting Andy Burnham has previously said he would take “responsibilities to fund the defence investment plan extremely seriously”.