Tories demand chancellor 'gets a grip' on defence or resign but Streeting hits back at Tories' 'fantasy economics'

The Conservatives have demanded John Healey resign if he fails to set out how the UK will spend a 3% share of the economy on defence by 2030. The chancellor has said the timetable for increases in defence funding will be set out at next year’s spending review rather than in Wednesday’s Budget statement. But shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith said Mr Healey should stop "dithering" and come up with a plan now to increase spending on defence to 3% of the UK’s gross domestic product.

Mr Healey quit as Sir Keir Starmer’s defence secretary in June, demanding that the 3% goal be reached in 2030 on the way to the Nato-defined 3.5% target in 2035. Read more: Rachel Reeves' tax double-whammy killed the Saturday job. Will John Healey bring it back? Read more: Britain’s national debt tops £3 trillion for the first time - as Badenoch signals 'red warning light' for economy The Office for Budget Responsibility has estimated that reaching 3% would require an additional £17.3 billion in 2029-30.

Mr Griffith said: "By the end of his Budget statement, John Healey must have fully funded 3% defence spending, or resign. "We are living in an era of extraordinary threats, and yet the chancellor is dithering over finding the money to pay the country’s insurance premium. "No firm would be left unscathed by a serious attack on UK soil. "It’s time for John Healey to get a grip, because you cannot have a strong economy without a strong defence."

However, Defence Secretary Wes Streeting hit back at the Tories, blaming Kemi Badenoch’s party for failing to invest in the military while in office. He said: "The public must be sick and tired of the Tories complaining about things they never did. They owe Britain an apology, not another lecture. "Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives shrunk the British Army to its smallest size since the Napoleonic era and left a £17 billion hole in the equipment plan.

"Their fantasy economics won’t keep Britain safe, just as their reckless hollowing out of our armed forces didn’t when they were in power. "Andy Burnham has made it clear that his Labour Government is determined to give our armed forces the investment needed to keep us safe. "In just two years, Labour has delivered the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War, with funding already higher than at any point during 14 years of Conservative government."