{"id":670477,"date":"2026-07-02T21:02:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T21:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/670477\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T21:02:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T21:02:13","slug":"uks-likely-next-leader-andy-burnham-vows-to-fully-fund-defence-plans-politics-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/670477\/","title":{"rendered":"UK\u2019s likely next leader Andy Burnham vows to fully fund defence plans | Politics News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andy Burnham says the UK must take the defence investment plan \u2018very seriously\u2019 despite 4.7bn-pound funding hole.<\/p>\n

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Published On 2 Jul 20262 Jul 2026<\/p>\n

The United Kingdom\u2019s likely next prime minister says he will take responsibility to find funds for a long-anticipated defence plan, days after a 4.7 billion pound ($6.2bn) funding gap came under public scrutiny<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking to LBC\u2019s \u201cTonight with Andrew Marr\u201d on Thursday, Andy Burnham said he \u201cwasn\u2019t in all of the discussions\u201d regarding the defence investment plan, but that he views the plan as \u201csomething that the country has to face up to very seriously\u201d.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhat I can say to you tonight is I will take my responsibilities fully to fund the defence investment plan,\u201d he said in comments reported by the UK\u2019s Press Association news agency. \u201cIf I am in the position to do so, I will take those responsibilities extremely seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced<\/a> a 15 billion pound ($20bn) increase to the defence budget over the next four years \u2013 totalling nearly 300 billion pounds \u2013 as the UK seeks to modernise its armed forces. The UK is grappling with concerns about its depleted military capabilities amid fears that Russia could attack NATO member states in the coming years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the source of nearly one-third of the plan\u2019s committed increase is uncertain.<\/p>\n

Burnham, who is expected to replace Starmer later this month, said the UK needs to \u201cbuild the resilience\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in a changing world. The nature of the threat is changing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Benefit cuts, tax mandate<\/p>\n

Addressing a key question facing the Labour government, Burnham also told LBC he would not make \u201ccrude cuts to benefit levels\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to go with the crude cuts to benefit levels that then just put people who are struggling in even worse poverty, and that often creates the backlash, and understandably so,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Burnham said he would pursue a \u201cdifferent approach\u201d over the long term, ranging from building more council homes to supporting young people to pursue non-university educational pathways.<\/p>\n

Starmer faced harsh criticism from inside the Labour Party last year over his signature plan<\/a> to slim down the UK\u2019s welfare system, which initially pitched raising the threshold for physical and mental disability benefits.<\/p>\n

Still, Burnham said he broadly would \u201cstick by the manifesto\u201d and \u201cpromises\u201d that UK voters welcomed with a landslide election in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there is some room within that manifesto for movement on tax,\u201d he added, noting the prospect of higher business taxes on warehouses and major developments, as well as lower rates for pubs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham says the UK must take the defence investment plan \u2018very seriously\u2019 despite 4.7bn-pound funding hole. Published…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[591,59,57,58,151,50,229,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-670477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-europe","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-military","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670477","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=670477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}