𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Labour does not know where up to £15billion earmarked to make the armed forces battle-ready will come from. Outgoing Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, unveiled his long-awaited Defence Investment Plan earlier this week, promising to drive up funding for the military. But not only did it fall £13billion short of the £28billion demanded by armed forces chiefs, it now emerges the Government cannot say where the money it did pledge will be found – with some reports suggesting there is a funding black hole of up to £15 billion.

Labour had claimed £10.3billion would be clawed back through cuts to other departments, with a further £4.7billion shunted into the next budget. Speaking to the media, Labour Minister Jacqui Smith warned that ministers would need to take “difficult decisions” to fund the shortfall. Yet pressed to name a single scheme facing the axe, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman came up blank. Reporters were instead told to wait until “the autumn” and warned that hospital building programmes could be among the casualties. Shadow Defence Secretary James Cartlidge said the plan had “completely unravelled”.

He blasted the funding rise as “far too little” and warned the “capability promised comes far too late”, adding: “Now we learn that they don’t even know how to fund it.”

Mr Cartlidge, who has long demanded welfare be slashed to pay for Britain’s defence, said Tory leader Kemi Badenoch had been “offering to work with Starmer to find welfare savings to fund defence” for months.

He went on: “His refusal to get a grip of the benefits bill means he is flailing around to find the cash – cutting infrastructure projects instead.

“Worse, he’s left all the difficult decisions to Burnham – this is a dereliction of duty from the Prime Minister.”

Mandarins have reportedly been ordered to shave 1% from their budgets on major projects, with transport and energy schemes braced for even deeper cuts to bankroll the pledge.

Some MPs have already complained that major road projects, including bypasses, have been quietly scrapped.

Now Andy Burnham, tipped to replace Sir Keir in No 10 within weeks, faces mounting pressure to plug the gaping hole in the plan.

His team had insisted the blueprint was “settled”, while Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis said he had the “assurance that, as prime minister, Andy Burnham will make sure that we’ve got the investment coming into defence”.

But the plan has already blown up in Labour’s face once before – with two of Sir Keir’s own ministers quitting in protest at the paltry funding on offer.