Ex-military officer despairs at 'nonsense' defence shortfall amid £5billion black hole

A former Military Officer has told Sir Keir Starmer that the Government "must fund defence" after a £5billion black hole was revealed in the Defence Investment Plan.

Speaking to GB News, James Sunderland despaired at the "nonsense" situation in Government as the Prime Minister scrambles to bolster the UK's defences.

Following the publication of the long-awaited Defence Investment Plan, it has been revealed that only £10billion of the pledged £15billion has been "set aside" for spending.

Ministers have also suggested that Makerfield MP and leading Labour leadership candidate Andy Burnham was only informed of the spending black hole on Tuesday.

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Discussing the plan's shortfall on GB News, Mr Sunderland declared that defence is the "prime role" of Government.

He said: "It was a very interesting PMQs today. Defence of course, the Ministry of Defence, is one of 17 departments and it's the department on which most politicians agree.

"There's less friction between the two front benches because people agree that defence is the prime role of Government."

Mr Sunderland highlighted that the level of debate over Britain's defences stresses how "serious" the issue is in today's politics.

He argued: "Keeping our people safe is very important, so the fact that it has hit the headlines again, the fact this is front and centre at PMQs shows it's a very serious issue.

"And the fact that we are going to be £5billion at least short of what is needed is a significant thing."

Asked for his verdict on the current state of Britain's defence funding, Mr Sunderland declared it is "nonsense".

He said: "It's nonsense in my view. I think that the Government must fund defence. It is quite clear to me, as a military guy, I can recall the early days of Operation Telic, the Gulf War, when we didn't have enough equipment to go around.

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"Sergeant Roberts and his body armour, for example. So I've been through it myself and I understand how important it is."

Issuing a stark warning to the Labour Government, Mr Sunderland told Sir Keir that he must "find the money to fill the capability gaps".

He told GB News: "What is really key here is long funding. This is about equipment, this is about capital spending, but it's also about cash. It's about now.

"And what's really important today is that we find the money to fill the capability gaps. We need something of everything."

The former army officer stressed: "We're operating in five domains now, not three, not just air, land and sea, it's also cyber and space. Technology is changing all the time, and the lessons of the Ukraine war are quite clear to me.

"We've given away most of our land equipment to Ukraine, so we need to rebuild the army very quickly."

Mr Sunderland called on the Government to "cut welfare" in order to properly fund defence: "Defence is the primary role of Government. If you look at defence, £65billion, a steady state budget every year, this is an uplift to that.

"But look at the welfare budget, £330billion. So the £5billion as a percentage is about one per cent saving on the welfare budget. So let's cut welfare, let's become a lesser dependent state. Let's get people back to work and let's spend money on defence, because our enemies are out there."

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