Prime Minister Keir Starmer unveiled on Tuesday his long-delayed Defence Investment Plan, promising an increase of £15 billion in funding to better equip Britain to fight the wars of the future in a blueprint he described as his legacy.
In what is most likely his last major policy announcement, Starmer said after last-minute discussions between the finance ministry and Britain's new defence minister, Dan Jarvis, the plan had been sharpened and went further than a previous document that prompted his ally, John Healey, to resign.
Starmer will take his plan - which foresees spending of nearly £80 billion a year by 2029 - to Ankara for a NATO meeting on July 7-8, most likely his last foreign engagement where he will want to signal that Britain was on the path to meet its commitment to reach defence spending of 3.5% of GDP by 2035.
But with his expected successor Andy Burnham due to take power as soon as July 20, he acknowledged that new governments could "build" on his blueprint, and some critics said the plan, delayed for more than nine months, was too little, too late.
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"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 to think again before they act," Starmer told an audience at a defence company in southern England.
"That is what we are delivering."
Starmer, praised by his finance and defence ministers for delivering the investment plan, said his blueprint would offer funding of £5 billion of investment in drones and autonomous weapons, create a hybrid Navy and make the army more lethal.
It would also strengthen Britain's nuclear deterrent and bolster a programme to build a next-generation stealth fighter jet for the Royal Air Force, and in the process, it would create jobs and boost growth in the country.
Matt Roberts, national officer of the GMB trade union, welcomed the plan, saying it offered "some stability for a sector besieged by insecurity".
"The challenge now is delivery - workers will judge this plan on real jobs, real investment, and real outcomes."
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