Exclusive: Ajax tank maker handed £12m from MoD despite trial pause Industrials The company behind the failed Ajax tank was paid more than £12m in the period trials were paused, City AM can reveal, laying bare the scale of dysfunction inside national defence procurement. General Dynamics continued to receive taxpayer cash in the period between late November and this week, the time where the government intervened to [...]
Healey: Defence investment is Starmer’s ‘highest priority’ Politics Defence secretary John Healey has said defence investment is the Prime Minister’s “highest priority” as military officials wait for a long-awaited strategy paper on procurement and spending. At the London Defence Conference, Healey said Sir Keir Starmer has taken a “personal interest” in drafting the Defence Investment Plan, which was due to be published last [...]
14 charts reveal the massive challenges facing UK and NATO defence spending Politics Defence spending is casting a shadow over Downing Street. Military officers are in a state of despair. The choices facing Sir Keir Starmer are stark. The political calculus for the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has become more complicated than ever as the Iran war puts public finances in danger. Their difficulties go back to February 2025 [...]
Exclusive: Mordaunt suggests only death of Brits would get UK to ‘wake up’ on defence March 30, 2026 Former defence secretary Penny Mordaunt has suggested that only the death of serving British soldiers would get the Prime Minister to “wake up” and fund extra defence spending. In an interview with City AM, the senior Tory figure said the current government’s spending plans for defence were “out of kilter” with reality given immediate threats [...]
Nato: Starmer’s defence spending pledge lagging behind March 26, 2026 Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge to upgrade the armed forces is facing renewed scrutiny after official Nato figures suggested that spending in defence was lagging ahead of a crucial expenditure target in 2027. Starmer said last year that the government would increase spending on defence to 2.6 per cent of GDP from 2027. But Nato, the [...]
MoD looks to hire AI chief on £185,000 – just don’t use it in your application March 23, 2026 The Ministry of Defence is on the search for a new AI chief to put the UK on a tech war footing. The MoD said its new chief AI officer would be in charge of leading an in-house technology centre and bringing AI into operation across the military for “maximum impact”. The London-based job will [...]
Diploma: Shares in FTSE 100 giant boom after profit upgrade March 18, 2026 Shares in specialist tech supplier Diploma boomed on Wednesday morning after the group slapped a hefty upgrade on its financial targets for 2026. The firm’s stock was up as much as 15 per cent on open to 5,771.06p. It came as the FTSE 100 giant said it expects revenue growth to come in at nine [...]
Starmer refuses to reveal date of defence investment plan March 4, 2026 Sir Keir Starmer hit back at criticism the UK government was not spending enough on defence amid an escalating conflict in the Middle East putting RAF jets and British nationals at risk. The Prime Minister declined to reveal when the much-anticipated defence investment plan would be published as Kemi Badenoch centred her attacks on the [...]
Rolls-Royce shares rally after unveiling bumper buyback plan February 26, 2026 Rolls-Royce has laid out plans to return billions to investors over the next two years after the blue-chip giant’s profit rocketed, leading to an upgrade of targets. The aerospace titan revealed plans for a £7bn to £9bn multi-year share buyback from 2026 to 2028, which comes as the firm wraps up a £1bn buyback from [...]
Babcock shares surge as Starmer calls for Europe to ‘step up’ on defence February 16, 2026 Shares in Britain’s defence giants rallied on Monday morning as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer called for Europe to “step up” on defence spending. Babcock – which plays a key role in the UK’s nuclear submarine fleet as well as naval, land and air operations – surged nearly four per cent in early trading to [...]