Jarvis Urges Burnham to Secure 3.5% Defence Spending

Published: 06 July 2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online.

The new defence secretary, Dan Jarvis, has recently called upon the incoming prime minister, Andy Burnham, to increase the nation’s defence spending dramatically starting from the year 2030. This ambitious request requires Burnham to provide a clear trajectory towards a significant NATO spending target. Achieving this specific goal would mean an extra twenty-five billion pounds every single year for the military by the middle of the next decade. The former paratrooper expressed his deep confidence that the prime minister-in-waiting truly values the vital importance of our national security. However, he is openly lobbying for these substantial funds, which would likely necessitate difficult spending cuts elsewhere in the government budget. Jarvis stated that he expects the upcoming spending review to commit sufficient resources to evidence this trajectory towards three point five percent of GDP. He spoke to reporters before the annual NATO summit scheduled to commence this coming Tuesday in the city of Ankara, Turkey. Jarvis has maintained his position in the cabinet and has already been in contact with Burnham and his team to discuss critical defence priorities. They have focused on the massive two hundred ninety-eight billion pound, four-year defence investment plan which was finally published last week after months of intense ministerial wrangling.

The defence secretary noted that he has known Andy for a very long time and harbors absolutely no doubt that, as the future prime minister, he will ensure the nation has all necessary resources at this point of challenge. Jarvis emphasized that the world is currently more dangerous and complicated than at any point during his entire lifetime, particularly as Russian warships and shadow fleet vessels are reportedly launching drones over RAF Lakenheath while sailing around the UK. Britain is currently gearing up for its most significant sustained deployment in many years, safeguarding the vital strait of Hormuz in a joint operation with France. This remains contingent on the United States and Iran agreeing on a sustainable peace, amid ongoing reports that Downing Street has kept Burnham out of the detailed planning process thus far. Jarvis will travel to Ankara alongside Starmer and the foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper. He intends to personally reassure his American counterpart, Pete Hegseth, that the United Kingdom remains fully committed to the three point five percent spending pledge which was agreed upon last year following significant pressure from Donald Trump.

The minister plans to provide the commitment that the government will honor the pledges and promises that have been made to the United States and to our various NATO allies throughout this transition. This move represents the biggest increase in military spending since the end of the second world war. Jarvis’s predecessor, John Healey, resigned just last month after it became clear that Starmer would only commit to increasing defence spending to two point six eight percent of GDP by 2030, leaving a very steep curve to hit the three point five percent target in 2035. The incoming defence secretary successfully won a modest one point five billion pounds more over the next four years as part of the massive investment plan, partly to increase spending on drones, though the overall uplift had a negligible impact. This decision prompted a significant backlash after reports emerged that spending on vital roads and other capital programmes was being cut and that a four point seven billion pound hole would have to be filled by the Treasury as part of Burnham’s very first budget.

Burnham, a former Greater Manchester mayor and health secretary, has little professional background in the fields of defence or foreign affairs. However, he stated in an interview this past Thursday that he would fully fund the entire defence investment plan and that if he becomes prime minister, there would be no compromise on the security of the nation. Meeting this strict NATO commitment will require a twenty-five billion pound shift in resources towards defence, which must be paid for either by cutting spending elsewhere, introducing extra taxes, or through higher borrowing, though at present there is limited headroom to raise debt significantly. Jarvis acknowledged that he needs to make the case for defence to both the public and his cabinet colleagues. Leaving a funding gap for the next budget is, in his view, entirely routine in terms of standard Whitehall accounting, and he insisted it had been necessary to publish the delayed plan ahead of the vital NATO meeting.

He does not believe the public should be distracted from the fact that in a short space of time, the government skewed more money and sharpened its military capabilities. Jarvis argued that he had secured about six hundred million pounds extra for drones after he had spent much of his first few days studying how they were being effectively employed in Ukraine and the Middle East. Jarvis noted that he was able to successfully get the plan out where Healey had previously failed because he ensured that negotiations with the Treasury were conducted in the most constructive and productive fashion in a series of meetings with the chancellor, Rachel Reeves. The Treasury ultimately approved an extra fifteen billion pounds for defence until 2030, which is one point five billion more than Healey had managed to obtain, though not quite as much as the eighteen billion originally sought in negotiations that had begun months earlier.

Jarvis first learned that Healey had resigned while he was on an official visit to the Sandhurst training academy for military officers, marking thirty years since he had first arrived there as a cadet. He mentioned that his phone was ringing away, though in fact he was told the news as a big shock when somebody came over to tell him the development. Starmer offered him the cabinet job in person at Downing Street that evening, which he said felt like a very big moment, because for thirty years or more he has been thinking about these things, dating back to his time in the military. The minister was commissioned into the Parachute regiment, where he served in Kosovo, Northern Ireland, Iraq, and Afghanistan, before he resigned in 2011 to become the MP for Barnsley Central, and now Barnsley North. He has also served as mayor of South Yorkshire, then was security minister before being promoted. Jarvis said he accepted Starmer’s job offer promptly and he did not consider it appropriate to demand more money for defence as a precondition for accepting. It was not a transactional conversation, he said. He added that he was keen to stay on under Burnham, and he very much hopes he has the opportunity to continue serving in this vital role.

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