A forecast fall in the Ministry of Defence’s day-to-day budget for 2027-28 reflects lower pension contributions and will not cut any funding streams, Luke Pollard, Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry, has said, according to an answer given in Parliament.
James MacCleary, the Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes, asked which day-to-day funding streams would be cut in 2027-28 in line with the resource budget forecast in the Autumn Budget. Pollard said: “This Government is increasing defence spending with the biggest uplift since the end of the Cold War.
“There will be no reduction in funding streams as a result of the forecast RDEL change set out in the Autumn Budget.
“This is a technical adjustment to RDEL budgets, equal to the amount the Department no longer needs to spend on pensions due to lower pension contributions resulting from the 2024 public sector pensions valuation.”
Leaked summer projections showed the department on course to spend £2.6 billion more than agreed with the Treasury in 2025-26, including £1.6 billion over on day-to-day costs, with savings sought from areas such as training. The Chancellor set a target date of 2030 for defence spending to reach 3 per cent of GDP in last week’s Budget.
‘This Government is increasing defence spending with the biggest uplift since the end of the Cold War.’
Eh?
The Chancellor will hand the Ministry of Defence (MoD) £72.8billion in 2027/28 and £75.5billion in 2028/29. His predecessor, Rachel Reeves, set the MoD’s budget as £73.8billion in 2027/28 and £76.5billion in 2028/29 in Labour’s defence investment plan.
Comparing military spending over time requires a consistent metric.
‘In his letter, Sir Ben pointed out that the Treasury had recently changed the definition of what counts towards “Nato-qualifying defence spending”. From 2027-28, it will include the “Single Intelligence Account”, which funds MI5, MI6 and GCHQ to the tune of around £5bn a year. This is despite Nato’s definition of defence expenditure not referring to intelligence agencies. The only funding allowed from outside defence ministries is that for training in military tactics, which would exclude the majority of the Single Intelligence Account. Sir Ben said that including intelligence spending gave the false impression that the Government was spending 2.7 per cent of GDP on defence in 2027-28, when 2.3 per cent was spent in the Ministry of Defence (MoD). He accused ministers of comparing annual totals that include intelligence spending with previous totals to give the impression of a large increase.’
Daily Telegraph 26 October 2026
This government has form regarding misleading claims on defence spending:
‘UK Statistics Authority’s interim chair, Penny Young, said: “We agree that it is incorrect and misleading to describe the £270bn as an increase in defence spending over the course of this Parliament, or to describe it as an extra £270bn. “The £270bn represents the proposed overall spending on defence over the lifetime of the current Parliament, from 2025-26 to 2028-29.”