‘Not good enough!’ Defence expert weighs in as Keir Starmer promises long-awaited armed forces boost

Military expert Simon Diggins has described Keir Starmer’s promise to deliver the Defence Investment Plan (DIP) before next month's Nato summit.

The Prime Minister said the spending blueprint was “an across-government priority” despite being delayed for over a year.

Speaking in Swindon, Sir Keir stressed that his “first duty is to keep our country safe” and that defence was “the single most important thing”.

However, analyst Simon Diggins was not impressed by the Prime Minister’s pledge to see the DIP released “in just a few weeks’ time”.

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“We've got defence manufacturers desperate to produce, but they're crying out for clarity from the Government,” he told GB News.

Mr Diggins explained that contractors need to know precisely “when the money is going to become available and what scale it's going to come through".

He said: “They produce the goods for us, and they need to know the money's going to come through and it's going to be guaranteed. And that is currently missing.

“We've been waiting over a year already for the Defence investment plan.

“We hope that at the moment it might appear just in time for the Turkish Nato summit in early July.

“That's not good enough,” the defence expert said.

The DIP has been rumoured to allocate a £15-18billion boost in Armed Forces spending, but Mr Diggins felt this would be insufficient.

“Bear in mind that the defence chiefs and their own independent audit have identified there is a £28billion funding gap between now and 2030 and that's just a standstill.

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“So the actual money you might need then to actually rebuild and reorganise our defences, such as to meet the threat which the Prime Minister has outlined, is simply not there,” he warned.

To that end, the military analyst insisted the Government must reconsider its spending elsewhere to help boost defence.

“We have the money in the government,” Mr Diggins insisted.

“We are spending over £100billion a year on debt repayment. We're heading towards £400billion a year being spent on welfare. This is a choice.

“Are we going to choose to prioritise repaying the debt, welfare or defence at the moment?

“The words are ‘we're going to rebuild defence’, but the actuality is that the money is not there,” Mr Diggins said.

It comes as Chief of the Defence Staff Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton warned the UK was experiencing its “most dangerous period” in decades.

Issuing the warning, he added that Britain must prepare for potentially “longer conflicts”.

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