“Andy Burnham might think that national security can’t come at the expense of social security, but John Healey resigned as Defence Secretary because he could not, in good conscience, preside over a funding settlement of less than three per cent of GDP.”
Mr Healey’s long-awaited plan to reach a defence spending target of three per cent of GDP will also be included in The Spending Review rather than the Budget, despite the Chancellor resigning from Sir Keir’s Cabinet in June.
A DWP spokesman said: “The reviews, due in the autumn, will lay the foundation for sustainable reform, and we will not pre-empt their findings.
“We’re already restoring opportunity for young people through our £2.5billion youth employment package, investing record funding into employment support to help disabled people and those with long-term health conditions and rebalancing the standard and sickness rates of Universal Credit for new claimants.”