Defence business chief sounds alarm over Labour’s navy spending delays

A pioneering defence supplier has sounded the alarm over Labour’s failure to outline how it plans to boost spending on the armed forces.

The boss of Cohort – which owns seven businesses that specialise in areas such as electronic warfare, sonar and satellite communications – said a lack of certainty was making it ‘very hard’ to invest.

The comments came as frustration mounts among senior military leaders and industry chiefs over delays to the so-called defence investment plan amid war in Ukraine and the Middle East.

The blueprint – which is set to outline how and where the defence budget will be spent – was due to be published last year but has been repeatedly delayed amid warnings of a £28billion black hole.

Labour is under pressure to outline plans to increase military spending 

Cohort boss Andrew Thomis said ‘the absence of an overarching defence investment plan’ is ‘really slowing things down’.

He told the BBC: ‘At the small end, things like tech-based training we were planning to supply to UK has been held up. At the very large end, we don’t have a clear plan for some quite large programmes like those defending the UK from the underwater threat.

‘It is very hard for us to make investment decisions or to understand where future revenue is going to be coming from in these circumstances.’

He added: ‘The world situation is very clearly unstable and unpredictable. We have had this situation, especially since 2022, where some of the long standing old standing rules have been broken. There is now considerable uncertainty about what hostile, potentially aggressive forces might do. The UK is not immune from that.

‘Without certainty and long-term ability to plan in the UK, it’s very hard to invest. It’s affecting our ability to export as well.’

The comments echo those from industry bosses earlier this year who spoke out even before war in the Middle East erupted.

Speaking in February, BAE Systems chief Charles Woodburn urged ministers to publish the plan to bring ‘clarity’ to what the MoD required.

Keir Starmer has set a target of raising defence spending from the current level of 2.4 per cent of gross domestic product to 2.5 per cent by April 2027 and 3 per cent after the next election. Under pressure from Donald Trump, Nato leaders last year agreed to ramp up defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP by 2035.

But ministers are at loggerheads over the plans with Treasury resisting calls to outline how Britain will hit its targets.