{"id":532779,"date":"2026-04-15T19:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T19:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/532779\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T19:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T19:42:08","slug":"starmer-rejects-accusation-labour-is-complacent-on-defence-funding-defence-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/532779\/","title":{"rendered":"Starmer rejects accusation Labour is \u2018complacent\u2019 on defence funding | Defence policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keir Starmer has said he does not agree with George Robertson\u2019s comments about the government\u2019s \u201ccorrosive complacency\u201d<\/a> on defence funding, as the prime minister faced sustained pressure on the issue.<\/p>\n

Questioned in the Commons about the claims by Robertson, the former Labour<\/a> defence secretary and Nato chief who co-authored a defence review for the government, Starmer insisted that defence spending was increasing rapidly.<\/p>\n

Pressed by Kemi Badenoch about whether he agreed with Robertson<\/a>, now a Labour peer, that social security should be cut to boost defence, Starmer said his government was tackling both areas \u2013 and argued that previous Conservative governments neglected them.<\/p>\n

Government sources have not denied that Rachel Reeves has proposed increasing the budget by less than \u00a310bn over the next four years amid concerns that any more would be unaffordable.<\/p>\n

While the government has committed to reach 2.5% of GDP on defence from April next year, then 3% in the next parliament, military leaders believe there is still a \u00a328bn shortfall after years of the armed forces being hollowed out by successive administrations.<\/p>\n

With defence spending discussions due this week, military leaders are understood to have been asked to find \u00a33.5bn in savings this year, even as the armed forces are being readied for conflict.<\/p>\n

Asked by Badenoch whether he agreed with Robertson, Starmer said: \u201cI respect Lord Robertson, and I thank him again for carrying out the strategic [defence] review. My responsibility is to keep the British people safe, and that is a duty I take seriously. That is why I do not agree with his comments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Questioned about when a promised defence investment plan would materialise, Starmer said it was important to get this right, and that it would be \u201cpublished as soon as possible\u201d.<\/p>\n

He defended Reeves\u2019s record on defence spending, saying that the promised increases to the defence budget were possible \u201cbecause of the decisions of this chancellor\u201d.<\/p>\n

Robertson publicly aired his frustration at the government\u2019s failure to come forward with its 10-year spending plans for defence in a speech on Tuesday night, saying: \u201cWe cannot defend Britain with an ever-expanding welfare budget.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking earlier on Wednesday, James Murray, the chancellor\u2019s deputy, argued that<\/a> balancing welfare and defence spending \u201cis not a zero-sum game\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve decided to have the biggest sustained increase in defence investments since the cold war,\u201d Murray told Times Radio. \u201cAt the same time, we\u2019ve begun our work to reform the welfare system, changing universal credit, reducing fraud and error, reforming motability. There\u2019s more work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIt\u2019s not a zero-sum game because we are increasing the investment in defence as a result of our decisions to record levels \u2026 It\u2019s worth also saying that the welfare system isn\u2019t some kind of amorphous blob. It includes things like our decision to remove the two-child benefit cap, which helps hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Healey, the defence secretary, is understood to be pushing the Treasury for more money for defence. However, the suggestion that public spending cuts may be necessary to fund defence has prompted an angry reaction on the left of Labour.<\/p>\n

John Hutton, a Labour peer who was a defence secretary under Tony Blair, said Starmer needed to \u201cknock heads together here\u201d and ensure the Treasury released more funding without first seeking guarantees on procurement systems.<\/p>\n

He told the Guardian: \u201cI think the Treasury rightly feel that the MoD wastes a lot of money at the moment, as they do \u2013 the procurement process is notoriously inefficient \u2013 and you could really save significant money, which you could then reinvest.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I don\u2019t think it\u2019s reasonable for the Treasury to say at the moment that until you come up with a credible plan [for efficiencies] \u2013 I think they want six or seven billion from the MoD \u2013 until you come up with that plan, we won\u2019t allow you to spend. That is completely wrong. Because that just simply does not take into account the geopolitical situation we\u2019re in.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer has said he does not agree with George Robertson\u2019s comments about the government\u2019s \u201ccorrosive complacency\u201d on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-532779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}