UK PM defends Reeves over Whitehall "wrangling" to get Treasury money

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer defended Rachel Reeves's actions as chancellor as he acknowledged "wrangling" between UK government departments and the Treasury.

Former defence secretary John Healey quit earlier this month over the proposed level of funding for the defence investment plan, Dip, criticising both Starmer and Reeves over the issue.

Reeves has raided capital budgets across Whitehall in order to fund the Dip with £15 billion extra over four years.

That is above the £13.5 billion Healey had been offered when he resigned, of which his allies claimed £3.5 billion was "Treasury trickery" rather than new money.

In his resignation letter, Healey said Starmer had been "unable" and the Treasury had been "unwilling" to commit the resources needed to defend the country.

At the launch of the Dip at drone firm Malloy Aeronautics' facility in Maidenhead on Tuesday, Reeves said: "Last year, I made the decision in the national interest to reprioritise aid spending towards defence and achieved the biggest uplift in defence spending since the end of the Cold War.

"That was the right choice, because the world has changed. National security is economic security.

"Today, we uplift defence spending further, an additional £15 billion worth of funding, by again reprioritising spending across Government."

Starmer set out how that money had been found by cutting capital investment, including on road and energy schemes which he said are "important but not immediately vital".

The prime minister said: "It is funded by reallocating spending from across government departments, reallocating capital budgets by one penny in every pound, while still maintaining public investment at the highest sustained levels since the 1970s."

The Dip was meant to be published last year but the government infighting over funding contributed to the delays which saw its release pushed back until the dying days of the Starmer administration.

Asked about comments by his likely successor Andy Burnham arguing departments should spend less time battling the Treasury, the prime minister said Reeves had put the economy "on a stable footing".

Arguing the UK has been less affected by the Iran war than it would have been otherwise, he said: "I'm very proud of Rachel in relation to that.

"To have stabilised our economy in two short years after what we picked up means that I can depart the stage – because it's the end of my journey, it's not the end of anybody else's – but I depart knowing that we have left this country in a better state than we got it.

"Are there wranglings between departments and the Treasury? Yes, of course there are, always have been, always will be.

"Because at the end of the day, the prime minister and the chancellor have to look at the overall judgments for the government, the overall affordability and prioritise between different things.

"Departments of course will put forward, in good faith, the commitments they think we should make, [I] understand that, but what we have to do is judge them against what we can afford, what the priorities of the country are."

By David Hughes and Christopher McKeon, Press Association

Press Association: News

source: PA

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