Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis said the success of the defence investment plan will be judged by whether those in the armed forces support it.

Speaking in the House of Commons, he said: “Ultimately, the success of this defence investment plan will be measured by whether it commands the support of those amazing men and women who serve in our armed forces.

“They remain our most important asset, respected by those who stand with us, feared by those who stand against us. We know that they are equal to any task, and with this defence investment plan, we give them the means to match their courage.”

Commons Defence Committee chairman Tan Dhesi said it was “disappointing” the Government had not set out how to meet its Nato target.

The Labour MP said: “The defence investment plan sets out clear priorities and welcome additional investment, particularly in readiness, nuclear capability and support to Ukraine.

“However, compared with previous plans, it contains significantly less detail on how that investment will be delivered, particularly over the longer term. It is disappointing that we do not have a clear timeline for reaching 3% of GDP, let alone the pathway to 3.5% which the UK has committed to at Nato.

“This risks leaving Parliament, and indeed industry, without a clear line of sight on future capability, timelines and funding.

“So the focus must now be on whether the ambition is matched by a credible delivery plan—and how exposed this leaves the UK and our Forces in the short term to the growing threats we face.

“We are at a dangerous juncture, which means making difficult choices. The world is less safe, less stable and the pressures on our military are far greater. Given the rising threat level, including warnings from the Prime Minister that Nato needs to be ready for an attack by Russia by 2030, the UK needs to properly invest in our defence and meet the moment.”

Former defence secretary John Healey, who quit in a row over funding, said the Government still had to set out a clear path to meet its Nato target.

Writing on X he said: “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.

“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.”

Reform UK leads the latest YouGov poll with 24%, while the Tories and Labour are joint second on 20%.

Sir Keir Starmer toured a drone factory in Berkshire after launching the defence investment plan.

The Prime Minister appeared in a sombre mood after finishing his speech, which touched on his legacy in office.

He shook hands with Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis and Sir Richard Knighton, chief of the defence staff, who had been in the audience.

Not long afterwards, as he toured the factory floor, Sir Keir spoke to staff about the warfighting robots made at the business.

When he was shown an early prototype drone that appeared to be made of wood, the Prime Minister joked about it being the equivalent of “people with feathers on their arms” trying to fly, when compared with top-of-the-range models.

He also made a light-hearted comment that he would like to stay to see a drone display, but he was “worried about getting back in time” for Defence Secretary Mr Jarvis’s statement to the House of Commons about the spending plan.

Hitting out at Sir Keir Starmer over the defence investment plan, Conservative MP Alicia Kearns said: “A late, underfunded plan from a departing Prime Minister isn’t good enough. Britain deserves better.”

Tory MP and former soldier Tom Tugendhat took to X to brand the defence spending announcement as “pointless”.

Sir Keir Starmer has said he is “absolutely certain” his successor as prime minister will build upon the Government’s increases in defence spending.

Sir Keir Starmer insisted Britain would be ready to fight Russia by 2030 if necessary.

Asked whether he could say the defence investment plan was enough to allow the UK to fight Moscow by that date, he said: “Yes I can, and that’s because of the increase in defence spending that we put in place last year, announced last year, already in place, which was the single-biggest increase, sustained increase, since the 1980s, and the fact that this defence investment plan builds on that.

“And it’s not just the amount of money, it’s also the capabilities.

“We’ve learned a lot from Ukraine, actually also from Iran as well, about the capability that is needed in order to confront countries like Russia.

“That is exactly what is going on in Ukraine, so I am confident in that.”

Sir Keir Starmer said the annual defence spend will increase from £54 billion to £80 billion by 2029.

Speaking in Berkshire, the Prime Minister said: “Before we came into office two years ago, this country spent £54 billion pounds a year on defence.

“We are taking this to almost £80 billion pounds a year by 2029.”

Sir Keir Starmer said some road and energy projects that are not “immediately vital” would be scrapped to pay for increased defence spending.

The Prime Minister ruled out funding the defence investment plan through defence bonds, calling them “borrowing by another name”.

Sir Keir Starmer said: “When the world is arming and aggression is rising, the best way to avoid war is to prepare for it.

“The best way to defend is to deter, to have the strength to make your adversaries think again before they act. And that is what we are doing.”

Sir Keir Starmer said the defence investment plan (Dip) has reversed the “corrosive hollowing out” of the armed forces.

He said: “We must stand more firmly on our own two feet.

“We must do what it takes to meet this new world head on, to keep our country safe and seize the opportunities that come from investing against our sovereign strength. That is what we’re doing.

“That’s why we have reversed the corrosive hollowing out of our armed forces, and it’s why we’re transforming a defence programme that, frankly, for too long has been underfunded and unsuited for the threats that we face.”

Sir Keir Starmer said conflicts in Ukraine and in the Middle East are not “remote” threats.

He said: “We see the horrendous human toll of these conflicts, which cuts across our values of justice and sovereignty, and that simple British impulse that bullies and dictators cannot be allowed to push people around.

“We also know that these threats are not remote. We see foreign states targeting our nation as well.

“Thugs hired by foreign powers conducting violence, vandalism, and arson on our streets.

“Disinformation aimed at sowing division and stoking disorder, spreading lies and undermining our democracy.

“Russian ships targeting the underwater cables that carry the data on which modern life depends.”

Speaking in Wiltshire at the launch of the defence investment plan, Sir Keir Starmer said: “As Prime Minister you get to meet people from all walks of life up and down the United Kingdom. And I know how worried they are about the state of our world.”

Introducing Sir Keir Starmer, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “I want to recognise, Keir, how important you have to been to this work right from the beginning.

“The defence of our country in an age of insecurity has been a defining pillar of his leadership, and his absolute moral clarity in the face of the threats that we face as a nation will go down as part of his legacy.”

The defence investment plan is worth £15 billion to the armed forces, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced.

She 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 against reprioritising spending across Government.”

Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis praised Sir Keir Starmer for making “tough decisions”.

Speaking at the launch of the long-awaited defence investment plan, Mr Jarvis said: “The central purpose of this plan is to get the kit and technology that our Armed Forces need so they can fight and deter now and in the years ahead.

“Credit goes to the Prime Minister and not only for getting us here today. On matters of national security I’ve seen him make tough decisions and always with conviction and assurance. Under his leadership, Britain has proved itself a reliable partner and a trusted ally.”

Sir Keir Starmer’s long-delayed plan for military spending will not be enough to prepare the country for war, an expert who helped draw up the Government’s defence review warned.

General Sir Richard Barrons, a co-author of the 2025 Strategic Defence Review, said the plan being published was “not going to crack the issue” of properly funding the nation’s armed forces.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We’re not keeping up with our allies, we’re certainly not keeping up with our enemies, and we know that the US is no longer going to come and save European security in the face of a Russian threat.

“So until we come to terms with the fact that we have to find more money for defence sooner, and yes, it will be at the cost of other things we like more, we are simply not going to be ready to defend this country properly.”

33% of British adults now think defence and the armed forces should be prioritised to receive more public spending according to IPSOS polling, representing a 13-point increase since May 2026.

Nearly half of the population (47%) believe government spending on defence should be increased, climbing 10 percentage points from last month.

Only 28% of Britons trust the Labour Party to have the right policies on defence, down from 41% in May 2024.

Cash-strapped households face a miserable winter, with experts warning that energy costs will be sky-high as the cold weather hits. The impact of the Gulf war will continue to be felt for months to come despite a lull in the fighting between the US, Israel and Iran, leading to higher bills in the UK. And there were calls for incoming Prime Minister Andy Burnham, expected to be in Number 10 by the time winter comes, to provide help to people struggling to pay for heating.

Analysts Cornwall Insight have released their new forecasts for October, and they predict the price cap set by regulator Ofgem will fall by just 0.5%. It means the average household paying by direct debit would face an annual bill for gas and electricity of £1,849 per year.

Prices are already due to go up on July 1 – but experts say these will be cushioned by warmer weather and lower household energy use. However, the October cap will land as people switch their heating back on, meaning the continuing high cost of energy and will have a greater impact on household finances.

Baroness Amos, who chaired today’s review into maternity care, explained why she did not think a statutory public inquiry was needed.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “My personal view is that statutory public inquiries take such a long time that the changes that I am proposing, which I would like to see start now, that this could have a transformational impact on the system, and we would not need a statutory public inquiry.

“But that is a personal view and I absolutely understand why some families are calling for one.”

Health Secretary James Murray said the deal with resident doctors was an “opportunity for a new, better relationship”.

He told Sky News: “I think it is good news, not just for resident doctors but also for other staff in the NHS and, of course, for patients, and for the services the NHS provides.

“I think if you look at what the resident doctors representatives said yesterday, they said: ‘Look the strikes are over, this is a good deal, we can move forward’.

“I think it’s now a responsibility of me and the Government and to work with resident doctors and to build on that deal. And so, like, we need to make sure it’s implemented

“This is an opportunity for a new, better relationship with working with resident doctors and building on trust so that we can work together for the benefit of the NHS over the months and years ahead.”

James Murray told Sky News that recommendations from maternity reviews had “sat on the shelf and nothing has happened”.

He told Sky News: “One thing I’m really conscious of is there have been lots of recommendations in recent years that quite often been accepted on the day by the secretary of state and they’re sat on the shelf and nothing’s happened.

“And I want to break that cycle and make sure we actually get a plan of action, not just out of Amos’s review but also Donna Ockenden’s report in Nottingham last week and other recent reports which have been published.

“There is a national task force, which I chair, which will report by the end of this year with a comprehensive action ban

“All of the recommendations from Baroness Amos’s report – and also Donna Ockenden’s report and others – all those recommendations can go into the task force with an actual plan produced by the end of the year.”

The long-delayed defence investment plan is “too little, too late” and does not provide enough funding or military hardware to keep Britain safe, the shadow defence secretary has said.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, James Cartlidge MP warned that while some of the capabilities announced as part of the plan “sound impressive”, they will come into operation too late as “the threat we face is today”.

He accuses Keir Starmer of being “too weak” to deliver more funding for the plan, whilst also criticising the delay in its publication.

Read more here.

Asylum seekers will be forced to pay up to £10,000 towards the costs of their hotels and taxpayer-funded homes, under bombshell new plans. Migrants will face monthly bills for their accommodation, with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood willing to deduct the cash from benefit payments.

Those given the right to work – once their asylum claims have been accepted – will also be told to begin paying back their costs. Refugees will be barred from gaining settlement rights if they have not paid back the “full amount”, sources said. Officials added: “Anyone who leaves the UK will be required to make their payments if they wish to return at a future date.”

Read more here.

Read more on the funding announcement here.

And in another headache for Downing Street the country’s economic growth has been confirmed to be weaker than initially thought at the end of last year.

The nation’s economy grew by just 0.6% for the first three months of 2026 according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Statisticians left growth unrevised for the first quarter of this year, but said gross domestic product (GDP) grew by a revised 0.1% at the end of 2025, against the 0.2% previously recorded.

Revisions to earlier quarters in 2025 means growth over the year as a whole was 1.3%, revised down from 1.4%.

James Cartlidge, the Tory defence chief, warned that the new plan has “barely more money than John Healey and Al Carns resigned over when they said Britain would be “less safe”.”

He told the Daily Express that the Dip was not “worth the paper it’s written on” as he warned the outgoing Prime Minister was in charge “in name only”.

Mr Cartlidge repeated his call for the next Prime Minister, who is widely expected to be Andy Burnham, to “cut welfare and give our armed forces the funding they need to keep Britain safe.”

New defence secretary, Dan Jarvis, has reportedly signed off on a new plan that will see billions poured into drones, with £5billion being splashed on the tech.

But the Dip will only see £14.5 billion funnel into the UK’s military preparedness, several billion short of the £28 billion officials previously said was needed.

Critics rounded on the announcement, warning it was “too little, too late” with the Shadow Defence Secretary James Cartlidge saying the funding did not go far enough.

The long-awaited and delayed Defence Investment Plan is due to be published, as critics pan the release for not giving the armed forces what they need.

Nearly 10 months behind schedule, the plan was initially held back amid wrangling within the Government over the amount of cash needed to fund the military.

A long-running dispute around the Cabinet table ended in the resignation of former defence secretary John Healey, who quit in protest at a lack of funding.