Government should apologise for delay to defence plan which has damaged Britain’s safety, MPs say

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The chief of the defence staff Richard Knighton has warned the UK is running out of time to boost its defences in ‌response to the threat posed by Russia

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The government should apologise for the delay to a long-anticipated defence blueprint which has damaged Britain's safety and emboldened its enemies, an influential cross-party group of MPs has said.

In a scathing assessment they also accuse ministers of offering “excuses” which, they say, “simply do not cut it”.

On Friday, the chief of the defence staff Richard Knighton warned the UK is running out of time to boost its defences in ‌response to the threat posed by Russia, after months of delays to the Defence Investment Plan (Dip).

Lord Robertson, the former Labour defence secretary who wrote the government's Strategic Defence Review – the 10-year investment plan will fund – has also accused Sir Keir Starmer of putting the UK's security "in peril" with his administration’s "corrosive complacency".

He also accused "non-military experts in the Treasury" of "vandalism" and said the PM was "not willing to make the necessary investment" in a speech in April.

Sir Keir has vowed the long-awaited strategy will be a “step up” and described protecting the UK as the “top priority”.

But MPs on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) hit out at the delay to the plan, which was originally promised in autumn 2025.

Its chairman Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said: “Those responsible may argue there are good reasons for the Dip’s continuing absence, but our report makes clear that excuses to the effect of ‘taking the time to get the details right’ simply do not cut it.

“Whatever the content of the Dip when it eventually does appear, the damage from its absence has been done – to the nation’s credibility, to its safety, to its armed forces, and to certainty within its entire defence industrial base.

“Any government minister attempting to explain away this delay to the Dip should instead ask themselves what message the bureaucratic drift of the past months has given to the public, as well as the UK’s allies and its adversaries, and simply apologise.”

He also complained that the Ministry of Defence “has not yet decided which capabilities, infrastructure and people it requires to transform the armed forces to be warfighting-ready within the budget available” and “nor has it secured the cross-government agreement that the plan needs”.

He added that the DIP had gained the “unwelcome honour of being the most anticipated document in my entire political career”.

“As we still await its publication at the time of writing, I know I speak for the defence interests of the whole UK when I say - this had better be good,” he warned ministers.

Sir Keir has insisted the plan will be published before the Nato summit in Turkey, which begins on 7 July.

A MoD spokesman said the government was providing a “generational increase” in defence spending, with an extra £270 billion across this parliament.

The spokesman said: “The defence investment plan will fix the outdated, overcommitted and underfunded programme we inherited.

“We are working hard to finalise it. As the Defence Secretary told Parliament this week, the Prime Minister is determined to publish it before the Nato Summit.”

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