Kemi Badenoch has piled further pressure on Sir Keir Starmer as she grilled him on the multi-billion pound funding gap in his defence spending plan.
The outgoing prime minister unveiled a £15 billion uplift in defence spending in Tuesday’s Defence Investment Plan (DIP) , largely funded by cuts to other departments’ capital budgets.
But the Tory leader claimed the plan “doesn’t add up”, after the Treasury admitted it is yet to spell out how it will fund almost a third of the increase, leaving Sir Keir’s successor a £4.7 billion gap in funding to fill at the next budget.
Andy Burnham, who is likely to be in No 10 by the end of the month, will face a choice between higher taxes, more borrowing or further spending cuts in order to plug the black hole.
Asking whether the Makerfield MP had “agreed to fund the shortfall”, Mrs Badenoch said accused Sir keir of “leaving this mess to his successor” with the “limited plan”.
Sir Keir replied by accusing the Tories of having “cut defence spending when they came into power”.
A minister earlier suggested that Mr Burnham only discovered he was facing the funding gap on the day it was published.
Defence minister Luke Pollard said that he himself had only seen the funding breakdown on Tuesday, the day of the DIP’s publication.
Asked whether Mr Burnham had seen the financial breakdown before, he told Sky News: “Downing Street have a close dialogue with Andy’s team … I understand they’ve been keeping him close to the process, and told him yesterday when the Treasury published the statement and the breakdown of the financial costs.”
Asked to clarify if Mr Burnham only saw the financial breakdown on Tuesday, he added: “So I saw the breakdown of the £15bn for the first time yesterday when it was published by the Treasury, I understand that Downing Street are keeping Andy’s team involved with the process.”
The defence minister insisted it’s “not unusual” for governments to make announcements then complete details at the next budget.
Pressed on why this is different to the previous Conservative government’s decision to do so, he said: “They left a huge in-year black hole.”
Mrs Badenoch opened PMQs by accusing the government of underfunding defence, asking: “The chief of the defence staff made it known that the armed forces needed a minimum of £28bn more to defend the country. Can the prime minister tell us why he thinks half that amount is enough?”
She added: “We can count, the generals can count, the Kremlin can count. His plan doesn’t add up. How can the prime minister possibly stand there and say that this is enough?”
Defence minister Dan Jarvis denied the funding gap was a hand grenade for the Makerfield MP – Sir Keir’s likely successor – and his new chancellor, insisting it was “absolutely the opposite”.
On Wednesday, he told reporters he is confident Mr Burnham will give Britain’s defence the investment it needs despite the funding gap.
Dan Jarvis told reporters on a visit to missile manufacturer Cambridge Aerospace on Wednesday that he had the “assurance that, as prime minister, Andy Burnham will make sure that we’ve got the investment coming into defence”.
But Mr Jarvis acknowledged there would have to be “conversations” with the man expected to take over from Sir Keir Starmer in less than three weeks, vowing he would “fight hard for defence”.
