Expected next UK PM Burnham faces defence funding gap

LONDON, July 1 - Andy Burnham will have to find an additional £4.7 billion ($6.2 billion) to close a defence funding gap, either through deeper spending cuts or higher taxes, if, as expected, he becomes British prime minister later this month.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Tuesday announced a long-delayed defence plan aimed at making Britain's depleted armed forces war-ready amid rising security threats and warnings that Russia could attack a NATO member as soon as 2030.

However, the plan's commitment to spend an additional £15 billion came under scrutiny within hours of its release after accompanying documents showed that a third of the funding still needed to be found in a budget later this year.

"It's not unusual for governments to make announcements saying this is what we'll spend, and then to complete the details of that at the next budget," Luke Pollard, minister of defence procurement, told Sky News on Wednesday.

DIFFICULT CHOICES

Burnham is widely expected to become Britain's prime minister later in July. His view of Starmer's defence plan is not yet known.

"I know that if Andy Burnham becomes the prime minister ... that he will take national security as seriously as Keir has taken it," Pollard said.

The plan was also criticised by opposition politicians and former military chiefs for failing to set out when defence spending would reach 3% of GDP, on the way to meeting Britain's NATO commitment to spend 3.5% of GDP by 2035.

Starmer defended the costings on Tuesday, saying much of the additional funding would come from reallocating spending from other government departments.

The plans have also drawn criticism for cutting funding earmarked for road and energy projects, a sensitive issue for a government elected in 2024 on promises of long-term investment in infrastructure.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies, a think tank, said the £1.2 billion per year needed to fund the current plan meant the next prime minister would quickly face difficult choices.

"There will be further impacts on other areas of spending, tax or borrowing on top of those set out in today's announcements – implying one key early decision for the next prime minister," the IFS said.

"Defence spending will likely remain one of the biggest fiscal pressures facing the UK in the medium term," it added, saying that reaching 3.5% in 2035 would require an additional £25 billion a year. REUTERS