Keir Starmer says some road and energy projects will be scrapped to pay for £15bn defence plan

Sir Keir Starmer has announced an extra £15bn for defence over the next four years, but warned it would mean some road and energy projects will now be scrapped.

The UK prime minister said on Tuesday that the long-awaited defence investment plan (DIP) would reverse the “corrosive hollowing out” of the armed forces and transform a military that has been “underfunded and unsuited to the threats we face”.

He called the blueprint “a platform on which I know my successor will build”. It has been signed off by Andy Burnham, to whom Starmer is expected to hand over power as soon as July 20.