Cabinet ministers asked to look for cuts to fund UK defence spending increase

Lisa Nandy says discussions are taking place about how to ‘keep this country safe’ after John Healey’s resignation

Cabinet ministers have been asked to look for more money in their departments to fund an increase in defence spending after the resignation of the former defence secretary John Healey .

The culture secretary, Lisa Nandy , told the BBC that her department was among those still in conversations with the Treasury about finding further sums for defence. Healey resigned last week over a far smaller than expected settlement for the defence investment plan (Dip).

The ex-defence secretary said in his resignation letter he “could not accept a Dip settlement that does not give our forces the resources they need”. Though Starmer said in February that Britain “needs to go faster” on defence spending, all he was prepared to offer Healey was an extra £2bn or 0.08% of GDP by 2030.

Starmer was reportedly not then willing to put a target date on when spending would reach 3% of GDP, expected to come after the next election.

Speaking on Sunday, Nandy said that departments were being asked to find more for the settlement. Dan Jarvis , who replaced Healey as defence secretary, has been given until the Nato summit in Ankara in a fortnight’s time to offer up an alternative plan which would see more investment.

“It’s the responsibility of all of us to do what is the first duty of any government, which is to keep this country safe,” Nandy said.

“I’d last spoke to the prime minister about this on Friday. I’ve spoken to the chancellor this week as well. I’m having discussions with my own officials in my own department about the amount of funding that we make available,” she said. “We’ve got a new defence secretary who is looking at the defence investment plan in its current draft form and having those discussions with the chancellor and the prime minister as well.