Streeting denies 'kicking can down the road' in defence spending row

Defence Secretary Wes Streeting has denied that the government is "kicking the can down the road" over how much the UK spends on defence, after criticism that Wednesday's Budget failed to set out a pathway to hitting its target of spending 3% of GDP on defence by 2030. Streeting is at odds with MPs on the Commons defence committee over the issue. Tan Dhesi, the Labour chair of the cross-party committee, said on Wednesday that decisions had been "kicked into the long grass" to next year's government spending review rather than announced in the Budget, warning that without building capabilities now, "we risk leaving ourselves seriously vulnerable in the event of a major conflict". Streeting hit back at the comments as "unfair" and "unfounded". Speaking on Thursday, Dhesi said the committee stands by its criticism, telling BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We had hoped to see that the chancellor would set out a precise pathway to spend 3% of GDP on defence by 2030. But instead some of those key decisions on defence have lamentably been delayed until next year's spending review." The dispute came as Chancellor John Healey and Streeting announced that foreign firms awarded defence contracts of more than £50m will need to invest an equal value back into the UK. Under the new investment rules, described as an "offset strategy", these companies will need to spend an equivalent amount on British factories, jobs and training. The Ministry of Defence will apply the rules on a "case-by-case" basis from April 2027, the government said. Healey and Streeting will unveil the policy on a visit to UK defence contractor BAE's shipbuilding site in Glasgow. Countries including Poland, Norway and the Netherlands have mandated similar rules to boost the economic benefit from defence procurement, according to the government. Streeting told Today: "I like Tan very much, he's a friend and I respect him, but I strongly disagree with him. And I don't think the charge he makes of delaying or kicking the can down the road stacks up against the extra money that is already going into defence and the capability we're funding right now." He told BBC Breakfast that the new rules, aiming to create "bang for the British buck", would help achieve the spending target given that increasing defence spending "does come at a cost to the country and other things we'd like to spend money on". He said waiting for the spending review, which does not have a fixed date and could come in the second half of 2027, was "the right thing to do" so ministers can look at "spending in the round". He added that the UK was ready to deal with hostile threats, but "we're not where we'd want to be", and that "there's no sugarcoating the fact that our Armed Forces were under-invested in for more than a decade". Dhesi did praise the government for plugging a £4.7bn hole in the Defence Investment Plan in the Budget, achieved by asking government departments to cut their capital budgets by 1%. Defence analysts have questioned the government's ability to deliver on its 2030 target and the Nato-wide target of 3.5% by 2035. UK defence spending is at an estimated 2.6% of GDP this year, and some estimates have suggested the government will need to spend an additional £10bn annually to reach its targets. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said on Wednesday that Healey "failed his own test" by not setting out a "plan for 3%". Healey resigned as then-Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's defence secretary in June over not spending enough on defence. In the Budget, Healey said the UK was negotiating with Finland, Poland and the Netherlands to set up an international bank, the Multilateral Defence Mechanism, to boost defence investment and joint procurement. But Conservative shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge said this amounted to "turning to borrowing at a time when the national debt is over £3 trillion", adding: "The answer is not more borrowing – it's to cut welfare to fund defence."