{"id":626722,"date":"2026-06-08T00:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T00:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/626722\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T00:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T00:08:08","slug":"nuclear-jets-at-risk-in-defence-spending-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/626722\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuclear jets at risk in defence spending plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

A senior RAF source warned that delaying or scrapping the F-35A would leave Britain vulnerable and unable to counter Russia should Moscow threaten the UK with low-yield nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have got to walk the walk of the talk we talk. The Government has to match word, thought and deed. Anything they do or do not do will be picked apart by Moscow,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom all the options that Russia has in conventional means… we very quickly run out of options for response. The F-35A helps us address this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Sir Richard Shireff, a former NATO deputy supreme allied commander, said Britain would \u201cpay in blood\u201d if it fails to boost defence spending.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He told the Daily Mail: \u201cIt has been over a year since the Government concluded its review of our Armed Forces. The investment plan should have been published last autumn.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe military is tearing its hair out waiting for Keir Starmer to make a decision. British jobs are on the line. Our national security is being undermined.\u201d<\/p>\n

The funding row has reportedly led to a clash between John Healey, the Defence Secretary, and Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, forcing the Prime Minister to step in.<\/p>\n

The MoD is facing a \u00a328bn funding shortfall<\/a> in the next four years. However, the Chancellor has been resistant to providing the investment to cover this, and it is understood a figure closer to \u00a318bn has been agreed.<\/p>\n

The Telegraph understands other government departments have had their budgets reduced to make up some of the shortfall, further inflaming tensions.<\/p>\n

Heidi Alexander, the Transport Secretary, is understood to have pushed back against demands for bigger cuts in her capital budget to fund Sir Keir\u2019s military investment plan.<\/p>\n

Sources suggested any cuts would not be \u201cthat much more beyond\u201d the 1 per cent being demanded across all Whitehall departments, but would have been higher had Ms Alexander \u201cnot beaten them down\u201d.<\/p>\n

It is understood that no major transport projects will be downgraded or axed because of their importance to economic growth, although there will be delays to some schemes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A senior RAF source warned that delaying or scrapping the F-35A would leave Britain vulnerable and unable to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[154902,59,57,58,420,2053,69332,50,9292,5438,58919,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-626722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-defence-industry","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-keir-starmer","tag-labour-party","tag-ministry-of-defence","tag-news","tag-nuclear-weapons","tag-standard","tag-top-story","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626722","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=626722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}