Defence

In charge of Britain's armed forces, the nuclear deterrent, and the running argument about whether 2% of GDP is enough.

The Ministry of Defence stopped around £400 million of costs claimed by suppliers in 2024/25 because it judged them invalid. Most were not fraud. But the figure sits beside a problem the MoD has yet to solve: it does not have a reliable estimate of how much money it actually loses to fraud. Its published estimate of £1.5 billion a year was described by the Permanent Secretary as "essentially an academic construct".

The Ministry of Defence eventually overturned 884 refusals involving former members of Afghan specialist units who had worked alongside British forces, after a review found that earlier decisions had been made without properly using records held by the UK government. A Defence Committee report found serious administrative failings and said the high reversal rate meant the original decisions could not be regarded as reliable.

In June 2020, a senior MI5 officer told a BBC journalist that Agent X was an MI5 informant. Less than two years later, MI5 gave the High Court a witness statement saying that had never happened. The statement was false. An investigation of 213 pages, published on 16 July, has now established that the officer who made the original disclosure knew throughout that he had done so and later fabricated an account denying it.

The government says its Defence Investment Plan will support nearly 60,000 additional jobs by 2029/30. Its own methodology does not estimate how many jobs may disappear from the spending programmes being cut to pay for it. The Ministry of Defence made that limitation explicit in a methodology paper published on 8 July.

Keir Starmer announced an additional £15 billion of defence spending power over four years on 30 June. The Treasury's funding table published the same day identified where £10.3 billion would come from. Against the remaining £4.7 billion, it said only: "To be funded at Budget 2026."

Keir Starmer announced an additional £15 billion of defence spending power on 30 June. The Treasury's financing table identified measures worth £10.3 billion. Multiple outlets reported the same account: Burnham had been briefed on the plan but had not been told about the £4.7 billion funding requirement before it emerged publicly.

On 26 March, the government's Road Investment Strategy said work would begin on the A38 Derby Junctions and A46 Newark Bypass during the road period of five years. After 96 days, the Defence Investment Plan funding document named both as candidates for cancellation. Neither has entered its main construction contract. No final decision has been taken.