- UK Parliament Speaker Lindsay Hoyle furious at rumours the DIP will be released when Parliament is not sitting
- He called it an “utter disgrace” and “kick in the face” after repeated delays
- The plan is expected to imply major cuts, putting several big programmes at risk
Rumours that the UK Government will publish its long-delayed Defence Investment Plan (DIP) this Friday (12 June), a day when by tradition the UK Parliament does not sit, have been met with fury by the Speaker of the House of Commons, Lindsay Hoyle.
The DIP is intended to provide the numerical backing to the 2025 Strategic Defence Review and was originally due to be published last autumn. However, the UK Government has since seen self-imposed deadlines come and go, as intransigence over how to fill a £28bn ($37.5bn) military funding black hole continues.
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It became a running joke in Westminster that the DIP was forever due to be published “soon”, as defence and government officials were said to be working “flat out” to deliver the document.
Were the DIP to be published by the UK Government without acceding to parliamentary courtesy, it would be another black mark against an administration that has considerable form for avoiding scrutiny.
Speaking before the House of Commons on 10 June, Hoyle, who is a sitting Labour MP, said that if the rumours were true that the UK Government planned to publish the DIP on Friday, it would be “an utter disgrace” and a “kick in the face” to Parliament.
“This may be speculation and I’m sure it will be corrected, but I would be appalled if it was done on a Friday when members have been waiting so long [for the DIP],” Hoyle said. “Once again, it seems to me we are becoming second-class citizens with the government.”
Shadow Secretary of Defence James Cartlidge said that “on such a significant point” in the context of UK defence spending, “we should expect confirmation [from the UK Government] that it would not be delivered when the House is not sitting”.
Is the UK military about look like Ukraine’s?
It is expected the DIP will fall far short of meeting defence requirements, with the expectation of huge cuts in military capability on the horizon. This could entail cutting key programmes, personnel losses, and withdrawal of the UK Armed Forces to little more than a national defence force.
Programmes at risk include big-ticket items like the planned Type 83 air defence destroyers, future batches of F-35B stealth fighters, and key land acquisitions related to the Land Mobility Programme, as well as the replacement of the obsolete SA80 rifle under Project Grayburn.
It is possible UK Government officials are looking to transition the UK military from a medium power, capable, theoretically, in deploying force at scale, into something more like Ukraine, which relies heavily on autonomous technologies and drones in its ongoing war against Russia.
