dailynewsnblog
Starmer says some capital projects on roads and energy being revised to fund Dip
Starmer gives more details of those capital cuts.
It means departments making better use of assets like underused land, and it means those departments with the largest capital budgets contributing more.
Therefore, some capital projects, for example on roads and energy, which are important but not immediately vital, will no longer go ahead as planned.
But this is about taking the necessary choices, the right choices to protect our nation.
And he goes on to confirm the new spending totals.
Now we are already delivering the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the 1980s – £270 billion over the spending review period.
And I can announce today that under the defence investment plan, we are increasing this by a further £15bn, setting a new record of spending almost £300bn over the next four years to back our armed forces and strengthen our national security.
Key events
Jarvis says £1.5bn more allocated to Dip now than when Healey resigned
Jarvis explains how the Dip has changed.
I will lay out what has changed and why.
This plan now commits more investment in our armed forces – £298bn over the next four years.
That includes an additional £15bn on top of last year’s spending review settlement, of which most is extra day to day spending for training and improving availability of ships and aircraft to increase our warfighting readiness.
That is £1.5bn more than when I took up this job just a couple of weeks ago.
This means defence spending will now increase in real terms by 27% between 2023 and 2024 and 2029 and 2030. That is a bigger increase across a parliament than any present member of this house has ever seen.
It means the £74bn allocated to our armed forces next year is now £20bn, more than the last year of the previous government.
And it means by the end of this decade, the proportion of GDP spent on defence will now be higher than at any time during the last 30 years.
Dan Jarvis is making his statement to MPs now.
He says:
The central purpose of this defence investment plan, which we published today, is to ensure that [the armed forces] have the kit and technology they need to do the difficult job that we ask of them.
I know first-hand just how important that is, and when I was appointed defence secretary just a couple of weeks ago, I promised to get that right.
Today, I make good on that promise.
(That is Jarvis taking credit for the changes made to the Dip since the version that was in place when John Healey resigned.)
John Healey welcomes extra funding for Dip, but says UK still not spending enough on defence
John Healey who resigned as defence secretary just under three weeks ago because he wanted more funding for the Dip, has posted these on social media.
Since he resigned, the Treasury has allocated a further £1.5bn for the Dip, and he welcomes that. But he says the UK still needs to spend more.
I want the Defence Investment Plan to be a success. And I thank the MOD officials who’ve worked so hard over many months on it. I welcome the extra funding and focus the Treasury has ceded over the last couple of weeks. (1/6)
The DIP is not only a spending plan to transform Britain’s Armed Forces to meet growing threats. It must be a growth and reform plan to back British industry, innovation, jobs for communities across the UK. And it must provide the British leadership allies are looking for. (2/6)
The SDR set the vision for a safer Britain. It can be accelerated. Since then, the world has changed. Threats have increased. Demands on defence have risen. The PM has made important new UK commitments. So we must now do more. (3/6)
Today is the next downpayment for defence. It builds on the record defence investment Labour in government has already made. But Britain will still be spending just 2.7% of GDP in 2030, the date when NATO has warned we could face a Russian attack. (4/6)
European security is at stake. The PM has said today that 3% must be the number 1 priority for the next spending review. We need a target date for 3% and a clear, credible funding plan to meet our NATO commitment for 3.5% on defence by 2035. (5/6)
As always, our Labour Government will continue to have my fullest support. (6/6)
Dan Jarvis, the defence secretary, will start his statement to MPs about the defence investment plan (Dip) within the next few minutes.
Health secretary James Murray tells MPs Amos review of maternity care should be ‘watershed moment’
As Denis Campbell and Tobi Thomas reports, the government is going to appoint a maternity commissioner to push through an urgent transformation of childbirth care in England after a review of maternity care by Valerie Amos concluded that it had multiple failings.
In a statement to MPs on the report, James Murray, the health secretary, said:
The report paints a bleak picture of failings at every stage for far too many – from pregnancy, labour and delivery, to the first hours, days and weeks after birth.
When I read about these systemic failures, I found them not only shocking and upsetting but also devastatingly familiar because they are explicitly repeated in review after review.
Murray also said that a fundamental change of culture was needed.
Culture is where so much of the responsibility lies. That culture is the most deep-rooted cause of the failures we have seen, and the most fundamental thing we must change.
We will dismantle toxic dynamics, boost staff morale, and support better teamwork between midwives, doctors, and other clinicians.
We need not only the right policies, procedures, and processes to be in place, but also a fundamental reset in the culture of a service that too often puts the desire to protect itself above the duty to protect women and babies.
That culture change must come from the top. It is time that trust leaders, executives, and senior clinicians pay attention to what is happening on their watch, put professional tribalism aside, lose the bunker mentality when things go wrong, and make sure the safety of women and babies always comes first.
This has to be a watershed moment. We must break the cycle of recommendations sitting on a shelf gathering dust.
Nigel Farage paid £22,500 per hour for working as brand ambassador for gold dealer, MPs’ register reveals
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has received £270,000 from a company that trades in gold for a few hours’ work he has done for it as a brand ambassador.
The payment is recorded in the latest edition of the register of MPs’ financial interests, and it is the largest single payment he has registered for work.
Farage has extensive outside interests, and the money he gets from his second jobs dwarfs what he gets from his earnings as an MP.
He has previously registered payments from Direct Bullion for his work as a brand ambassador. But the latest payment is double what he got from the gold company in 2025.
In the register Farage says that in return for the £270,000 he was working a maximum four hours a month for three months. Assuming he worked the full 12 hours, that would amount to an hourly rate of £22,500.
Ed Davey rejects Starmer’s criticism of Lib Dem plan for defence bonds
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has restated his call for the government to fund higher defence spending using defence bonds. In his speech this morning Keir Starmer dismissed this as “just borrowing by another name”. (See 10.56am.) But, in a statement issued after the speech, Davey said:
The Liberal Democrats’ plans for defence bonds would raise £20bn for investment in our armed forces, but Starmer has once again put his fingers in his ears. Andy Burnham needs to go much further and take up our plans to repair the damage done, keep our country safe, and allow the UK to meet its Nato commitments.
These are from Mark Urban, the defence specialist and SundayTimes columnist, on the Dip.
I shouldn’t be surprised after 40 years reporting defence – but it’s amazing to see how easily the commentariat & Westminster can be diverted into talking about drones when the real Q is whether the nation is ready to accept the peace dividend is over, & scale of spend needed now
The £15bn defence spending boost announced today by the government adds just £1.5bn (over 4 years) to the sum John Healey resigned over, saying it would require defence cuts. It confirms the UK is not ready to fulfil last year’s spending promise to Nato at the speed the military wanted – big implications, as I wrote a fortnight ago https://markurban.substack.com/p/game-over?r=24uwax
The latest news release from the MoD includes this comment on the defence investment plan from Air Chief Marshal Sir Rich Knighton, the chief of the defence staff (head of the armed forces). He said:
This plan sets out how and where we will invest in defence over the coming years to deliver the strategic defence review and build the integrated force the nation needs.
It also reflects both the importance of national defence and the vital contribution our armed forces make every day to keeping the country safe.
This is a neutral, factual comment, not an endorsement.
Andrew Marr, the LBC presenter, says Dan Jarvis, the defence secretary, was told to remove a line from his speech today saying Knighton backed the Dip.
BREAKING: I am hearing senior military upset at the DIP. Dan Jarvis had sentence saying that the chief of staff backed the plan but, because it’s not properly funded, they told him he had to take the sentence out
