Sir Keir Starmer has “serious questions to answer” about his defence spending uplift, the Tories have said, after a cabinet minister admitted the PM’s figures were misleading.
It is being claimed that the £6 billion extra for the Ministry of Defence taken from the aid budget will in fact be spent on leasing back the Diego Garcia base once Sir Keir pushes ahead with giving Mauritius the Chagos islands.
At a Downing Street press conference, Sir Keir said the increase amounted to Labour spending £13.4 billion extra each year on the armed forces.
The Tories say that by moving money around, Sir Keir is “trying to con Donald Trump” into thinking there has been a defence spending increase when there has not really been one.
Mr Zaranko said: "As a minor note to what is a major announcement, the prime minister followed in the steps of the last government by announcing a misleadingly large figure for the 'extra' defence spending this announcement entails.
