Defense Secretary John Healey suffered a bruising employee with Labor MPs last night when he tried to defend the foreign relief reductions of the government, it has emerged.
In a private meeting in parliament, Mr. Healey was confronted with an angry return on the plans of Sir Keir Starmer to encourage defense expenditure by robbing the budget for foreign help.
The Prime Minister, who later visits US President Donald Trump in the White House today, has promised an increase in military editions to combat the threat of Russia.
He said that the British defense budget will rise from its current 2.3 percent of gross domestic product to 2.5 percent in 2027.
To finance the increase, British expenditure on development aid will be shortened from 0.5 percent of gross national income to 0.3 percent in the next two years.
According to The Times, a group of a dozen Labor MPs – usually with backgrounds in development – led a recoil against the plans in the meeting with Mr. Healy.
But the Minister of Defense tried to reassure the members and peers present that the government would not stop the spending programs abruptly.
In the meantime, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner insisted that the cabinet was 'united' on the plan to finance increased defense expenditure by reducing foreign help -despite claims of splits.
Defense Secretary John Healey suffered from a bruising investigation with Labor MPs when he tried to defend the government's foreign cuts, it has emerged
The Prime Minister, who later visits US President Donald Trump in the White House today, has promised an increase in military editions to combat the threat of Russia
To finance the increase, British expenditure on development aid will be shortened from 0.5 percent of gross national income to 0.3 percent in the next two years.
Anneliese Dodds, the development minister, was described as 'on the floor' about a decision that she is deep against.
“She should have resigned immediately,” a former minister told the newspaper. “She will never have any authority at Westminster now.”
Ed Miliband, the energy secretary and the former Labor leader, would also have expressed concern about Sir Keir's decision to defeat foreign help.
But speaking with broadcasters, Mrs. Rayner said: “It is devastating that we should lower the budget on overseas help, but we had to determine a balanced budget.”
She added: 'The cabinet had a discussion about it and we were all united that the most important responsibility of every government is to keep its citizens safe.
“We acknowledged that we had to ensure that we had extra resources within our defense space.”
Sir Keir climbed to promise the increase in defense expenditure in the midst of enormous doubts about the dedication of America to European security after Mr Trump's return to power.
It follows the repeated calls of the American president to stimulate NATO fellow people to encourage expenditure for their forces and to bear greater responsibility for their own safety.
Sir Keir said that the increase of £ 6 billion a year would be 'Take care of the safety and defense of our country and of Europe 'in the light of the threat of the Russian Vladimir Putin.
Mr. Healey told last night that the move of Great -Britain to cut abroad differed from Mr. Trump's own decision to close USAID, America's development agency.
He would have said, “When Trump did it … he said” we don't care about the impact. “
The Minister of Defense promised that ', on the other hand, we will not terminate abrupt programs'.
He added that the government had to exclude higher loans or tax increases, so there had to be a way to “finance this decision credible and competent.”
Mr. Healey said that Labor could do a much better task to sell jobs in every constituency 'how the defense industry supported jobs.
But one Member of Parliament said: “We must remind the government that development aid and defense expenditure is two sides of the same currency.
“By withdrawing from the world, we will only spend more on the army along the line, long after Trump has disappeared.”
