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Sir Keir Starmer has insisted a key defence funding plan “will provide the resources our military needs to keep us safe”, after John Healey resigned as defence secretary, accusing the Prime Minister of failing to give enough towards it.

Mr Healey resigned on Thursday afternoon, and said the Prime Minister had been “unable, and the Treasury has been unwilling”, to provide adequate funding for the Defence Investment Plan (Dip).

Responding to the senior Labour figure’s resignation in his own letter, Sir Keir said he agreed that the Government has to “go further” on increasing defence funding.

But he added: “The Defence Investment Plan does just that, delivering an unprecedented increase in defence spending in a sustainable way.

“It will provide the resources our military needs to keep us safe and the clarity the British defence industry needs to plan.

“It will make the big strategic investments we need for the long term and give the certainty which private finance needs to invest. It will allow our armed forces to transform and modernise and back them with the tools they need to change the way we fight and to deter our enemies.

“And crucially it will ensure the money spent is spent wisely and used to back jobs and growth here in Britain.”