Defence secretary John Healey frustrated broadcasters this morning when he refused to say when Labour will fulfil its pledge to increase spending within his department.
In the October Budget, the government announced plans to hike defence spending up from the current rate of 2.3% of GDP to 2.5%.
The pressure on the department is rising after Donald Trump was re-elected to the White House.
There are concerns he could cut funding to Ukraine and push Kyiv to cede land to Russia, therefore emboldening Vladimir Putin to invade other parts of Europe in the near future.
Trump also wants Nato allies to push their defence spending to 3% of GDP.
So, on LBC, presenter Nick Ferrari asked Healey: “When will the government raise defence spending to the 2.5% of GDP?”
The government will set out “clear path” to that goal, the minister said, adding that the review into how the department would spend that additional money is set to be published next spring.
Healey said: “Everyone agrees that spending must increase –”
But Ferrari interrupted him, saying: “Sorry, you won’t set out a path until the spring? What are you doing all day? You’ve been in since July.
“You can’t set out a path? You won’t even say when in the spring, will you?”
The minister replied: “It’s not just how much – ”
Ferrari pushed on: “You won’t, will you, Mr Healey? We will not suddenly hear, ‘Don’t worry, we will in 2029’. We’re not going to hear that are we? What takes so long?”
Healey replied: “It’s a question of how much you spend and how well you spend it.
“If I said today, ‘We will spend 2.5% of GDP on defence’, your next and immediate response would be, ‘Well, how would you spend it?’
“That’s the purpose of the defence review, which we’ve already launched and Keir Starmer launched within a fortnight of Labour coming to government.”
But the presenter hit back: “So it takes nine months? That’s as long as it takes to have a child. For the Labour government to work out just the date, it takes you nine months!”
Healey just said the country has not spent 2.5% of GDP on defence since 2010, when the last Labour government was in power.
The defence secretary had a similar exchange with the BBC Radio 4′s Today host Amol Rajan this morning.
The presenter said: “You went into the election saying [an increase to defence spending] would happen, and obviously there’s a lot of pressure on the public finances, we get that, but we could do with a bit of clarity.
“I don’t understand why we have to wait until spring to know if a manifesto commitment will be achieved in this parliament.”
Rajan also noted that if defence spending does not climb to 2.5% of GDP by the end of this parliament in 2029, “that would be a betrayal to lots of people including the armed forces, wouldn’t it?”
Healey just refused to say, repeatedly, if it would get across the line in this parliament.