Chancellor John Healey is facing calls to resign after delivering his first Budget, with the Tories and Reform UK criticising him for failing to set out how he will reach 3% of economic output on defence by 2030.
Mr Healey has pushed back the announcement until next year's spending review. His target of 3% by 2030 would fulfil a threshold he thought would be missed under Sir Keir Starmer's premiership, which sparked his dramatic resignation as Defence Secretary earlier this year.
Political backlash over defence plan
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said: "He should have set out a plan for 3% today. So now he is the man who is increasing risk to personnel on operations; he is the man who is making our country less safe; he has failed his own test.
"This is on him, and no one will ever forget. If he had any decency, he would resign again today.
"What he's done is he's given himself a bit of breathing space until next year. Instead, what we have is a plan to have a plan. I bet Putin's really scared now."
Reform UK's Robert Jenrick added: "John Healey resigned as Defence Secretary and demanded 3% of GDP is spent on our armed forces by 2030.
"He is now Chancellor and won't say how he will find the money. He has failed his own test. He should resign again."
Benefits bill criticism and response
Mr Healey has also faced criticism for failing to announce cuts to the benefits bill.
But he told GB News: "This was a broken system. And two years ago, we started putting face-to-face assessments back in place. We've changed terms of universal credit, so people don't have to brand themselves as too sick to work.
"So, those are changes we're making now. But in the long run, as I've argued, and the Prime Minister has said, too, we have to bring the cost of benefits down.
"We will, but we have to do that, especially for our young people, in a way that gives them a chance to make something of themselves. And when we've got a million youngsters that aren't working and aren't in education or training, that's a moral duty to do this, and we will."
