THE Labour Government has warned departments that they face cuts of up to 11 per cent.
The Treasury has asked “unprotected” Government departments – such as the Home Office, Foreign Office, Ministry of Justice, and Department for Work and Pensions – to model for cuts of more than 10 per cent, Bloomberg reported.
Ahead of a spending review in June, these unprotected public services have reportedly been asked to look at a “flat cash” scenario – which due to inflation would be a cut of around 5% – and a spending cut that would be closer to 11%.
It comes as Prime Minister Keir Starmer looks to funnel more money into defence amid concerns that Donald Trump will support Russian interests in Ukraine and more widely across Europe.
Grassroots Labour group Momentum said: "Finding money for war while cutting money for public services tells you a lot about the priorities of the Starmer Government – and it's not pretty."
The UK currently spends around 2.3% of gross domestic product on defence, a figure the UK Government wants to increase to 2.5%.
The Government has promised its strategic defence review will set out the “pathway” to reach that 2.5% goal.
Richard Dannatt, the head of the army from 2006 to 2009, told BBC Radio 4’s Week that Labour needed to go “well beyond 2.5% towards 3% or 3.5% for starters”.
He warned that the UK military is “so run down” it could not lead a future peacekeeping mission in Ukraine, as Starmer has suggested British troops could do.
Former Nato deputy supreme allied commander general Richard Shirreff suggested defence spending would have to rise to Cold War levels of around 4%.
The retired officer told the BBC it was a “defining moment” because Europe “cannot trust or rely on the United States” as it had “effectively given up leadership of the free world” under Trump.
“We have to spend more on defence, that’s the reality of the situation we find ourselves in,” the Prime Minister said on Monday.
Arriving in Paris for emergency talks on the Ukraine war with other European leaders, Starmer warned of a “generational challenge” requiring the UK and Europe to “step up capability”.
The Prime Minister said any settlement would need to be a “lasting peace deal, not just a pause for [Russian despot Vladimir] Putin to come again” as he gathered with allies in the French capital.
Nato secretary general Mark Rutte was in attendance, while German chancellor Olaf Scholz and Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez were also pictured arriving, as were Donald Tusk, Dick Schoof and Mette Frederiksen, the prime ministers of Poland, the Netherlands and Denmark.
European Council president Antonio Costa and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen are also in attendance at the meeting hosted by French leader Emmanuel Macron.
The gathering in Paris comes as US secretary of state Marco Rubio is leading a delegation to Saudi Arabia for talks with Russian officials that will seek an end to the fighting in Ukraine.
However, Ukraine has not been invited to the talks. The nation will not accept the outcome if Kyiv is not involved, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday.
