Andy Burnham says Labour will not slash welfare budget to boost defence spending

The Prime Minister has ruled out cutting the welfare budget to pay for an increase in defence spending, telling Parliament that there shouldn’t be a trade off between national security and social security.

Andy Burnham made the comments during a fiery clash with Tory leader Kemi Badenoch at Prime Minister’s Questions, after she asked whether the Labour government would be spending 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) on the military by 2030, on its way to achieving the Nato target of spending 3.5% by 2035.

Badenoch told MPs unashamedly that a Conservative government would find the extra cash by cutting housing benefit.

However, Burnham told her “that would create levels of homelessness in this country that we wouldn’t have seen before – hundreds of thousands of children in temporary accommodation”.

He added: “We do everything to support national security, but it can’t come at the expense of social security.

“Having strong national security also depends upon having resilience in our communities.

“This side of the house will not be forced to choose between the two, and we will set out a plan to get to 3.5% by 2035 at the spending review.”