UK defence funding crisis has been a long time coming

John Healey. No 10 had tried to bounce the MP into releasing the investment plan on Thursday, but he refused. Photograph: House of Commons View image in fullscreen John Healey. No 10 had tried to bounce the MP into releasing the investment plan on Thursday, but he refused. Photograph: House of Commons Analysis UK defence funding crisis has been a long time coming Dan Sabbagh Defence and security editor John Healey’s complaint is that Starmer sat on this problem for months before making a derisory offer UK politics live – latest updates John Healey’s resignation as defence secretary on Thursday was a long time brewing, though in the end the denouement was swift. It leaves an already weak Keir Starmer without a defence strategy less than a month before a Nato summit and an unresolved row about spending as Donald Trump threatens to restart the bombing of Iran. On Monday, No 10 finally told Healey how much more money it was prepared to give the Ministry of Defence to fund major projects as part of the defence investment plan (Dip). Its programmes include the £41bn Dreadnought submarine replacement for Trident – and a mooted investment in drones, ready for a future Ukraine-style war. The plan was also a vital element of the UK’s progress towards meeting a Nato target agreed by Starmer a year earlier to lift defence spending from 2.6% of GDP in 2027 to 3.5% by 2035, nearly £30bn in real terms. Some of its projects are diplomatically significant too: including the Aukus nuclear-powered submarine development programme with Australia and the US. There had been months of wrangling behind the scenes between the MoD and the Treasury, but in the final analysis Healey was to be disappointed. Though Starmer said in February that Britain “needs to go faster” on defence spending, all he was prepared to offer Healey was an extra £2bn or 0.08% of GDP by 2030. Chart of defence spending as a share of GDP To Healey it appeared to be a trivial amount, despite a string of defence promises made by Starmer to Nato, to Trump and to key allies. On Sunday, the UK, France and Germany all said again they would “stand firmly” with Ukraine after Starmer hugged President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on a visit to Downing Street . The prime minister has also promised the UK would, alongside France, lead a deployment of international peacekeepers to Ukraine, if there is a durable ceasefire. Both countries have also offered to lead a multinational force to secure the strait of Hormuz – if the Iran war ends – even though it had taken three weeks for the UK to send a single destroyer, HMS Dragon, to Cyprus in March. Defence sources said that Starmer was not even willing to put a target date on when spending would reach 3% of GDP, though it would be after an election. Even though Starmer had promised Trump and other Nato allies the UK would eventually reach 3.5% in 2035, the Treasury wanted the MoD to plan for 3%, they added. “Your Dip financial settlement,” Healey wrote in his resignation lett