Chancellor orders departmental budget cuts to fund defence spending plan

Chancellor John Healey has instructed every government department to identify one per cent cuts in their capital budgets, BBC News reported. The reductions are intended to fill a 4.7 billion pound shortfall in funding for the Defence Investment Plan. [1]

The new spending reductions come in addition to an earlier request for one per cent cuts made to fund the initial 10.3 billion pounds of the project, according to BBC News. The overall Defence Investment Plan carries a total price tag of 15 billion pounds. [1]

As FTMQ News reported earlier, Healey previously allocated seven million pounds in his first budget to evaluate a potential bid for northern England to host the Olympic Games in the 2040s. [8]

BBC News reported that Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch criticized the announcement, calling it a plan to have a plan. Meanwhile, the chancellor faces continued pressure to clarify how the government will meet its target of spending three per cent of national income on defence by 2030. [1]