Cooper heaps pressure onto Starmer and Burnham over defence spending

Yvette Cooper has piled pressure onto Sir Keir Starmer as she backs his former defence secretary in a row over defence spending.

John Healey resigned as defence secretary over Sir Keir’s highly anticipated Defence Investment Plan (DIP) earlier this month, arguing it does not provide adequate funding for Britain’s military.

In an intervention on Friday, the foreign secretary also warned the DIP will “have to go further”, heaping pressure onto Sir Keir and his likely successor, Andy Burnham, to lay out his defence plans and boost spending.

In an interview with ITV, Ms Cooper said the government must go “further and faster” on its defence spending, as the outgoing prime minister prepares to publish the plan ahead of next month’s Nato summit.

“So there’s a whole series of things as part of the Defence Investment Plan we have to be able to get on with, but we are also going to have to go further. We just are,” she said.

“That is the reality of the challenges that we face in terms of security, in terms of global instability and conflict. So we have to face up to the fact as a country, that means we are going to have to go further on defence spending.”

Mr Healey quit as defence secretary earlier this month because a long-delayed military investment plan was only due to provide an extra £13.5 billion, far short of the £28bn over four years which officials had argued for.

He suggested the UK was on course to spend only 2.68 per cent of GDP on core defence by 2030, casting doubt on the country’s ability to meet its Nato target of 3.5 per cent by 2035.

Asked if Mr Burnham will have to deal with the issue of defence spending during his first weeks as prime minister, Ms Cooper said: “Well, we’re going to have to get to 3 per cent. We’ve made a longer term commitment to get to 3.5 per cent. We are going to have to do that.

“We are going to have to increase our defence spending. So of course, all of this is going to have to be continually reviewed, continually improved on.

“We are going to have to do that. I don’t think we have any choice as a country.”

Ms Cooper backed Mr Burnham to be the next prime minister this week, having said she had spoken to the former mayor and he was “100% behind our unwavering support for Ukraine”.

Though Mr Burnham will be bringing in his own Cabinet in No 10, Ms Cooper is expected by some to remain in government due to her experience.

Sir Keir has vowed to publish the DIP ahead of the Nato leaders’ summit on July 7, despite the fact it will be left to his likely successor Mr Burnham to implement it – and he may have a different view.

Speaking during a visit to Milton Keynes on Thursday, Sir Keir was resolute that moving ahead with publishing the plan is the right move.

He told broadcasters: “Everybody understands why it’s important that we spend the money that we must spend on our armed forces, and so it’s my intention to publish that ahead of the Nato summit.

“That’s the right time to publish it, when we will be coming together as Nato countries – the single most effective military alliance the world has ever seen – to share our capabilities, and to make sure we emerge from that summit stronger as a military force.”

But Downing Street has failed to rule out any uplift to the long-awaited DIP following Mr Healey’s resignation.

Asked whether the government would still rule out any uplift to the £13.5bn extra investment that was proposed to Mr Healey, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “The defence secretary has said he’s working very closely with colleagues in government, with the prime minister, with the chancellor, and there have been good and constructive meetings between the chancellor and defence secretary over the past few days.

“The defence secretary has been clear he’s determined to secure the best possible deal sooner rather than later.”

Pressed on whether there would be any uplift, the spokesperson refused to rule it out, saying: “I’m just not going to comment ahead of the publication of the DIP.”