PM insists he is focused on defence - as he backs Miliband's tougher stance on Israel
Andy Burnham has hit back at accusations that he ignored defence issues in his showpiece conference speech - and reiterated the Government's opinion to condemn Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
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When pressed on his perceived lack of focus on defence in an interview with LBC's Nick Ferrari, the Prime Minister insisted: "I did speak about defence today."
After Nick suggested the mentions were brief, Mr Burnham again hit back.
Speaking from Labour's conference in Liverpool, he told Nick: "I mentioned our NATO obligations. I've talked a lot about defence, Nick, since coming into this job.
"I've made a commitment to fully fund the Defence Investment Plan, and that will happen.
"I was within 2 weeks of taking office and was in Ukraine supporting President Zelensky. I was at the UN last week talking about issues related to defence and our national security.
"It has taken actually more of my time probably since I became Prime Minister."
When asked whether his government would still meet the NATO commitment to spend up to 5% of GDP on defence by 2035, Mr Burnham told Nick: "Is there a policy change? There's only so much you can put on the table in a conference speech.
"There were big themes that I put on the table. I put forward, I would say, a prospectus that the British public haven't been offered in a long time. I did it with honesty. I did it with clarity."
He added: "And I've set out a 10-year plan for Britain in which I've demonstrated how we can meet our defence commitments by reforming welfare, building more council homes so we can reduce housing benefit, taking a different approach to getting young people into work so we can reduce the amount we spend on out-of-work benefits. And that is the route then to meet our NATO commitments."
Despite his fighting talk over defence, Mr Burnham refused to declare that Israel is perpetrating a genocide in Gaza.
Guardedly, the Prime Minister said the government "carefully" considers these matters - and insisted that the Foreign Office is taking its lead from international courts over the accusations of genocide in Palestine.
Following foreign secretary Ed Miliband's sanctions on Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the Prime Minister defended his government's approach to the issue.
"I did agree with Ed Miliband to talk about the illegal occupation", he said.
Mr Burnham added: "And the war crimes that we believe have been committed. So we did call it where we have evidence. So you don't say crimes in a sense? And where we believe it's clear, we have, we have said that.
"I'm not saying that it is or isn't [a genocide] at this point in time. That hasn't yet been determined. But we will take our lead from the courts."
In a wide-ranging conversation with LBC, Mr Burnham also refused to support or condemn the proscription of Palestine Action - a group which has targeted UK military bases in protest of what it calls the genocide in Gaza.