Politics latest: MoD told to find £11bn of cuts under Starmer’s defence investment plan – UK Times

More than half of voters think Andy Burnham is not ready to be prime minister but are willing to give him “a hearing”, a poll has found.

A survey by More in Common found 59 per cent of Britons did not think the Makerfield MP was ready for power.

But the public still sees him as more ready than either Kemi Badenoch or Nigel Farage, with 62 per cent and 66 per cent respectively saying the two leaders were unready.

With a net favourability of 0 per cent, Mr Burnham remains more popular than any other party leader, although 45 per cent of people have no view about him.

The public is also split on whether he would do a good job in Downing Street, with 27 per cent believing he would and 25 per cent saying he would not.

More in Common’s executive director Luke Tryl said the figures showed Britons were “willing to give Andy Burnham a hearing, but the window for him to turn that rehearing into a reset for the Government is narrow”.

Defence secretary Dan Jarvis denies reports that there has already been dissent about the defence investment plan (DIP) among the chiefs of staff.

Liberal Democrat Al Pinkerton asked Mr Jarvis to respond to reports that the chief of defence staff had told him to remove a line from his speech stating they had backed the DIP.

Mr Jarvis responded simply: “That isn’t correct. All of the chiefs support the DIP.”

Members of the House of Commons audibly groaned as Dan Jarvis responded to a question from Liberal Democrats MP Mike Martin (Tunbridge Wells) about the “vague” spending commitments made from 2030 to 2035 in the defence investment plan (DIP)

“This is a tale of two DIPs,” Mr Martin said. “The first DIP is covered by the period in the current spending route to about 2030 and the second DIP is the bit beyond that, from 2030 to 2035.

“The first has detailed spending commitments, and the latter has quite vague spending commitments,” he explains. “So, can the Secretary of State guarantee to the House on behalf of the government, no matter who might be in it by that point, that the treasury has guaranteed those figures, and they will be in the next spending review?

“That is, that the defence section of the next spending review has already been written?”

Mr Jarvis said: “With great respect to him, I know that he will understand it isn’t for me to make guarantees on behalf of other government departments, including, of course, the Treasury.

“I don’t think any minister would be in a position to do that outside of the Treasury,” he said. “What I can guarantee him is that in the time that I’ve had available, I’ve looked very carefully at the mix of capabilities contained within the plan, I have made a number of changes in order to deliver capabilities that I thought were required sooner rather than later.

“Has that involved making some difficult, difficult choices? Yes, it has. Has it involved cutting some capabilities? Yes, it has.”

Dan Jarvis continues to avoid questions about whether Makerfield MP Andy Burnham, likely to be the next prime minister, has had any sign off or interaction with the defence investment plan.

Asked by an MP if Mr Jarvis “would be able to give us industry, our enemies, the markets, the whole country a great deal more confidence” by answering the question about whether Mr Burnham signed this off, he said: “I can be confident, because I can have confidence in the longstanding record and history of Labor governments investing in defense that gives me confidence.”

Alex Baker, Labour MP for Aldershot, the home of the British Army has pointed out concerns that on the ground her constituency still lacks the industrial capacity to spend any invested money.

“I’m confident that we will make good on that commitment in the context of the next spending review and a down payment on the future of towns like mine in Aldershot and Farnborough.

“But as much as we wrangle over percentages of GDP, on the ground, we still lack the industrial capacity to actually spend this money and build more defense companies in my patch and across the supply chain cannot access the finance they need to hire more people and expand production.

“Which is why I’ve been campaigning for over a year for the UK to join the defence security and resilience bank,” she said.

“Does the secretary of state recognize this challenge, and what are we going to do to increase our industrial capacity?”

Defence secretary Dan Jarvis told MPs that the success of the defence investment plan (Dip) will be judged by whether those in the armed forces support it.

Speaking in the House of Commons on Tuesday, he said: “Ultimately, the success of this defence investment plan will be measured by whether it commands the support of those amazing men and women who serve in our armed forces.

“They remain our most important asset, respected by those who stand with us, feared by those who stand against us. We know that they are equal to any task, and with this defence investment plan, we give them the means to match their courage.”

Mr Jarvis thanked the prime minister and the Chancellor “for their support and the spirit of goodwill which has guided our negotiations over the past fortnight”.

He said: “They have, for two years, demonstrated steadfast commitment to our national security, and our armed forces are today better prepared and better supported as a consequence of that.”

He also paid tributed to his predecessor John Healey, highlighting that £1.5 billion more has been raised for defence between his resignation and the publication of the Dip.

John Healey has said he welcomes the extra money the treasury has ceded since he exited his position as defence secretary, but more needs doing to hit the three per cent target.

“But threats are still growing, demands on defense are still rising in this dangerous world, and today’s step means that we will be spending as a nation 2.7 per cent of GDP on defense in 2030 the date that NATO now warns we could face a Russian attack.

“So, with European security at stake, would my right hon friends agree that more needs to be done in the months ahead, beyond the dip, to develop a clear credible funding plan that will hit 3 per cent and that will meet our NATO commitment to 3.5 per cent by 2035?”

James Cartlidge stepped up to criticise the defence investment plan (DIP), which he said was only released out of a “desperate search of legacy”.

“To conclude, after months of dither and delay, it’s taken the sudden end of his premiership for the prime minister to finally publish the DIP in a desperate search for a legacy, but it’s a legacy of failure.”

Millie Cooke, political correspondent

The MoD will invest £330m into critical underwater infrastructure protection to tackle hostile activity in and around UK waters, as well as spending an additional £1.5bn over the next four years on Atlantic Bastion, the Royal Navy’s plan to secure the North Atlantic for the UK and NATO against the “persistent and growing underwater threat from a modernising Russian submarine force.”

Launched in December 2025, Atlantic Bastion creates an “advanced hybrid naval force to defend the UK and NATO allies against evolving threats”.

The extra £1.5bn in funding will “enable the UK to find, track and, if required, act against adversaries with unprecedented effectiveness across vast areas of ocean”, the DIP said.

It comes after the UK responded to “increased Russian activity” near crucial UK cables and pipelines in the Atlantic north of Britain in April this year.