Starmer warns Burnham not to borrow to fund defence as he reveals £15bn plan

Keir Starmer gives a speech during a visit to Malloy Aeronautics in Berkshire after the publication of the long-delayed defence investment plan on Tuesday. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA View image in fullscreen Keir Starmer gives a speech during a visit to Malloy Aeronautics in Berkshire after the publication of the long-delayed defence investment plan on Tuesday. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA Starmer warns Burnham not to borrow to fund defence as he reveals £15bn plan The prime minister unveiled his long-awaited defence investment plan on Tuesday after months of delays Keir Starmer warned his successor not to borrow more to pay for defence as he raided energy, transport and housing projects to pay for a £15bn military spending plan. The prime minister revealed his long-awaited defence investment plan (Dip) on Tuesday after an 11-month government row that cost him his defence secretary and arguably contributed to his downfall. Starmer said the government had found an extra £15bn for the plan by taking money from road and energy schemes. He failed to deny reports that some of the funding had come from pushing back planned upgrades to armed forces housing. He urged his successor, likely to be the Labour MP Andy Burnham , to find more money for defence at the next spending review, though he warned not to borrow more to pay for it. The Guardian revealed last week that some of the prime minister’s allies would use the transition period to recommend Burnham revive the idea of “defence bonds”, which was previously rejected by the Treasury. “Defence bonds are just borrowing by another name,” he told an audience at a drone-making company in Berkshire. “We’ve looked at this very carefully, but the fact is doing this through borrowing will push interest rates higher at a time when £1 in every £10 already goes on paying their interest. “This government has fought hard to bring the public finances under control, and it has paid off helping to bring inflation and mortgage rates down. We should not sacrifice that.” The prime minister’s plan means the government will now spend an extra £15bn on defence investment over the next four years, beyond the £283bn it had previously allocated. Of that, more than £8bn will be spent on a new stealth fighter jet for the Royal Air Force, more than £63bn will go on nuclear weapons systems, including 12 new jets to carry nuclear bombs, and omore than £5bn will be spent on drones. More money was found for drone spending in particular after Dan Jarvis, the new defence secretary, agreed to sacrifice other parts of his budget to do so. The prime minister did not deny reports on Tuesday that this money had come from a plan to upgrade military housing, something Jarvis’s predecessor, John Healey, had prioritised. Healey announced £9bn last year to help fix more than 40,000 military homes. Starmer did admit, however, that much of the additional £15bn was coming from other departments’ capital budgets, meaning infrastructure project