Has Starmer left a £5bn defence funding hole for Burnham?

Has Starmer left a £5bn defence funding hole for Burnham?ByBen Chu and Tom Edgington, BBC VerifyPublished22 minutes agoThe Defence Investment Plan (DIP) increases military spending by £15bn over the next four years and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has described this as "a historic shift", although critics say that this new money is still insufficient to keep the country safe.Attention has turned now to how the extra spending in the DIP will be funded, with the Treasury revealing that the savings identified from other departments do not cover the full planned rise for defence.This has resulted in talk of a "£5bn defence black hole" which could be a problem for Sir Keir's presumed successor Andy Burnham.BBC Verify has looked into these figures to put them into context.Is there a £5bn hole?The Treasury has released a table showing that in the four years to 2029-30 defence spending will rise by an average of £3.75bn each year compared with its previous plans following the publication of the DIP.The government has added up those annual increases to produce the figure of £15bn of extra spending on defence over four years.The Treasury table also shows that around £1.2bn a year of that annual £3.75bn a year rise still has to be found and will be outlined in the Budget later in the year.Adding up these annual funding shortfall figures over four years gives a total of £4.7bn.However public finance experts say it's better to talk about budget shortfalls in annual terms, rather than cumulative totals spread over several years, which can produce exaggerated and confusing numbers.So a clearer way to discuss the size of the DIP funding shortfall is around £1.2bn a year.It is true that the next Budget - due in the autumn and Burnham's first assuming he becomes prime minister - will have to fund that gap whether through additional spending cuts, tax rises or additional borrowing.Is £1.2bn a big number?Total Whitehall departmental spending in 202...