𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Sir Keir Starmer’s government has been thrown into fresh chaos after another defence minister stepped down.

He wrote to Sir Keir saying it had been “the privilege of my life to serve this country, first in uniform and then in government.”

But he tore into the Government’s position on defence funding, warning that we face “a more unstable and dangerous world than at any point in recent decades”.

In damning remarks he said that Labour’s plans for investment in defence are “not built for the threat we face” and “neither transformative enough nor sufficiently funded”.

He slammed the government for “asking our Armed Forces to operate in a more dangerous world on a budget written for a calmer one”.

Just moments before his resignation he had sat down for an interview with Sky News where he hinted at stepping down should he be unable to “do right” by the Armed Forces.

His resignation followed another by Labour MP Pamela Nash, who had resigned from her post as a parliamentary assistant to John Healey, following his decision to quit as Defence Secretary.

In her letter she wrote: “The defence of our nation is the most important responsibility for any government. The delays and difficulties with securing the necessary funding to progress the defence investment plan has been the latest issue that is damaging to the trust of the public in us.”

Sir Keir, responding to Mr Healey’s resignation had said that the defence investment plan “will allow our armed forces to transform and modernise and back them with the tools they need to change the way we fight — and to deter our enemies.”

He also wrote that the world today “requires a serious response to build our economic resilience and our national defences”.

Starmer wrote that the increases in spending outlined in the defence investment plan, which is yet to be released, “will be sustainable and fair” and “will mean significant reallocations of funding from across government departments”.