Moment Labour minister is torn to shreds in Sky News clash: ‘Entirely uncredible!’

Defence Secretary John Healey had no answers this morning when asked how Britain will pay for a new pledge to spend 5% of GDP on military spending. The promise came from Sir Keir Starmer as he jetted to the Hague for this year’s NATO summit, as his fellow leaders attempt to keep Donald Trump on side.

However the new promise to increase defence spending from 2.3% to 5% would cost the UK a whopping £80-£90 billion. Asked this morning how he will pay for the hike, Mr Healey argued that no NATO country has a plan yet. Speaking on Sky News he said: “We’re increasing defence spending by £5 billion this year. We’ll increase over the next two years the biggest increase since the end of the Cold War, and in this parliament, we’re showing exactly how we’re going to pay for it.”

“So we’ve said that we will pay for that record increase in defence investment by switching money out of overseas development aid. So just as we’ve done in this parliament to set out and show how we pay for the increased defence spending, as were look to meet the ambition in the next parliament towards the bigger 5% benchmark by 2035 in the next parliament we’ll also show how we will then pay for that.”

Host Wilfred Frost hit back that it is “entirely meaningless” to claim he’ll get to to 3.5% unless he sets out a proper plan this parliament for getting there.

“You’re essentially just saying ‘we’ll leave it until the next government, it’s got nothing to do with us’.”

Mr Healey replied: “I spent last night with all 31 other defence ministers, and not a single defence minister and not a single one of the 32 governments will come to this NATO summit with a fully worked out 10-year budget plan.”

Mr Frost interrupted him to point out he wasn’t asking for a 10-year spending plan, but details of what more will be done over the coming four years to prepare Britain for hitting the new 5% target.

He blasted: “If you don’t get at least a third of the way to closing the gap of this pledge that you’re making then it’s entirely uncredible. And again, it’s not just about you - I’m sure you want to spend it - it’s about the Chancellor.”

“If she doesn’t outline how she will give you the money this parliament to close that gap, this announcement is entirely uncredible!”

The Defence Secretary said voters can “make their own judgements about what’s credible”.

“They can see that in this year we’re increasing defence spending by £5 billion, they can see in two year’s time we’ll increase it to a record level that we’ve not seen in this country since 2010, a record increase since the end of the cold war.

“They will see us moving money out of overseas development in order to fund what is the most important duty of government and responding to the threats.”

Spain has already opted out of the NATO agreement to hit 5%, dealing a blow to the hope of unity.

Sir Keir said: “This is an opportunity to deepen our commitment to Nato and drive greater investment in the nation’s wider security and resilience.”