Whitehall Departments Facing More Cuts To Fund Defence Cash Boost, says Lisa Nandy

Whitehall departments are facing further spending cuts to provide more cash for Britain’s armed forces, a cabinet minister has said.

Culture secretary Lisa Nandy said discussions between No.10 and ministers were happening “in real time” to find extra money for the government’s Defence Investment Plan (DIP).

Her comments came just days after John Healey quit as defence secretary, saying the £13.5 billion extra being given to his department was not enough to keep the country safe.

In a blistering resignation letter, he accused Keir Starmer of being “unable” to get more cash out of chancellor Rachel Reeves.

Healey has been replaced as defence secretary by former paratrooper Dan Jarvis, who told the Sunday Telegraph that he was determined to make sure that the armed forced get “precisely what they need”.

Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show, Nandy said the PM had “been clear with every single one of us in the cabinet that we need to find more money for defence”.

She said: “I 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.

“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.

“These discussions are ongoing, we are looking very carefully at how we achieve it.”

Kuenssberg said: “So John Healey resigned because he was told by Downing Street that the prime minister’s decision was final.

“You’re now telling us that there are conversations happening to find more money, to increase the amount that was designed to be in the Defence Investment Plan? So there will be more cash?”

Nandy replied: “Yeah. I can only tell you as somebody who is actively involved in these discussions that these discussions are happening in real time, we have a new defence secretary ... and I know he wouldn’t have taken the job unless he felt that we could meet this moment, and we are working together constructively to achieve that.”

Subscribe to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.