Andy Burnham admits he 'wasn't in all discussions' after defence spending plan left him with £4.7bn black hole to fill

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Speaking exclusively to LBC, the frontrunner for Downing Street was asked if he was aware he'd have to find £15 billion to fulfil the Dip by Andrew Marr.

Mr Burnham told Andrew: “I didn’t have all of the, all of the details.

“I wasn’t in all of the discussions, but to be fair, the Government had had an internal process ongoing.”

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The newly-elected MP for Makerfield added: “I regard it as something that the country has to face up to very seriously.

“We’re in a changing world. The nature of the threat is changing.

“What I can say to you tonight is I will take my responsibilities fully to fund the defence investment plan.

“If I am in the position to do so, I will take those responsibilities extremely seriously. No compromise on the security of the nation.

“More broadly, I just think we need to build the resilience of the country in all of our, in all of our places.”

Mr Burnham was revealed to have to find the money to fund rearmament under the Defence Investment Plan (Dip) announced on Tuesday.

Outgoing PM Sir Keir announced £15 billion in extra defence spending - but had not sourced £4.7 billion of the funding needed to do so yet.

The other £10.3 billion is being found through reallocating money earmarked for other departments.

In a written statement to Parliament, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said only two-thirds of that sum – £10.3 billion – had been identified, while the remaining £4.7 billion would be “confirmed at Budget 2026, in a fair and balanced way”.

Ms Reeves added that the Treasury would focus on finding “efficiencies” and cancelling or delaying “lower priority programmes”, while emphasising the Government would not cut day-to-day spending to pay for defence.

Announcing the Dip on Tuesday, Sir Keir said he expected his successor to build on the increase in defence spending, while Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis said defence would be the number one priority for the Government’s next spending review.

But the decision to leave almost a third of the extra funding to be set out at the next budget means finding the money will be a task for Mr Burnham, Sir Keir’s likely successor, and his new chancellor.

Max Werner, senior research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said the decision meant there would be “further impacts on other areas of spending, tax or borrowing on top of those set out in today’s announcements – implying one key early decision for the next prime minister”.

Mr Jarvis denied the funding gap was a hand grenade for the future chancellor, insisting it was “absolutely the opposite”.