Reeves grudgingly resorts to departmental salami slicing to fund UK defence budget

Starmer shows no will to pursue the main options for rising commitments: spending cuts, tax rises or borrowing

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When Keir Starmer wanted to promise Donald Trump that the UK would increase defence spending, he decided to fund it by slashing the UK’s aid budget – https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/28/anneliese-dodds-resigns-keir-starmer-cut-aid-budget">losing a cabinet minister, Anneliese Dodds, in the process.

This time around, with John Healey’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) demanding an additional £18.5bn over four years to fund the https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/09/rows-over-defence-investment-plan-have-badly-harmed-cabinet-relations">defence investment plan, there was no such lever to hand.