An F-35 on the deck .

The Ministry of Defence has been urged not to scrap Britain’s F-35 programme as the Government seeks to plug a multibillion-pound black hole.

This week Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, will warn “things will get worse before we get better” as Labour finalises how to fix the £22 billion gap in public finances it claims was handed to them by the Conservatives.

Defence sources told The Telegraph there were growing concerns that the MoD could look to scale back how many F-35Bs it purchases, as it was already struggling to find the funds for the original number it had pledged to buy.

Lord Dannatt, the former head of the Army, warned: “Given the huge investment already made in the Carrier Strike Group programme it would be madness not to further invest and make sure we have enough aircraft with the right capability, otherwise the whole programme could look like a white elephant.”

The MoD had originally planned to buy 138 of the fifth generation fighter jets, but has only placed a firm order for 48 planes for delivery by 2025. Of this, it has received 34.

 

Earlier in 2024, the Tories confirmed they were negotiating to buy another 27 for delivery by 2033. Government sources insisted the MoD was still committed to the programme.

The next Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) Report, the Government’s yearly report on major projects, is expected to give a higher number of red ratings to large-scale MoD projects than the previous year. A red rating indicates that a successful delivery of the project is considered “unachievable”.

Seven projects are expected to have their delivery dates pushed back by more than a year.

The last IPA report for 2022-2023 gave the F-35B Lightning Programme an amber rating, suggesting a successful delivery was “feasible” but noted “significant issues already exist, requiring management attention”.

This rating was an improvement on the red rating it received the year before.

Spear Cap 3, a missile system which will deliver the principal air-to-air ground weapon for the F-35 fleet and is critical to the aircraft’s attack and control of its capabilities in contested environments, was also given a red rating in the last report.

Other red ratings for the same period included the tactical strike weapon Brimstone 3, the Core Production Capability, which delivers safe nuclear reactor cores to meet the Royal Navy’s submarine programme and Global Combat Air Programme.

A Whitehall source added that they would not be surprised if the medium helicopter programme and armoured cavalry, which includes Ajax, received the red rating in the new report.

The F-35 fighter jets, which each cost about £90 million, have been beset by repeated delays and cost overruns. The MoD has long been evasive about how many Britain will ultimately buy.

Sir Keir has refused to guarantee the future of Tempest, the next-generation stealth-fighter programme.

As defence secretary, Sir Ben Wallace raised concerns about the F-35s, saying that the costs of the fleet were “unacceptably high”.

MoD sources told The Telegraph there would be no official comment on the F-35s until after the Strategic Defence Review was complete.

Work on the F-35s first began in the 1980s. It has an estimated lifetime costs of $2 trillion (£1.6 trillion) in the US through to 2088, according to the Pentagon.

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Starmer: Things will get worse before they get better

Sir Keir Starmer will claim to have inherited "not just an economic black hole but a societal black hole" -

Sir Keir Starmer will warn this week that things will get worse before they get better, claiming that there is “rot deep in the heart” of Britain.

In what will be seen as an attempt to lay the groundwork for sweeping tax rises and spending cuts, the Prime Minister will claim to have inherited “not just an economic black hole but a societal black hole”.

Sir Keir will warn “working people” that he must take “unpopular decisions” in a speech on Tuesday.

Sir Keir will say he will be honest “about the choices we face and how tough this will be”.

He will add: “Frankly – things will get worse before we get better.”

The Prime Minister will say: “When there is rot deep in the heart of a structure, you can’t just cover it up. You can’t tinker with it or rely on quick fixes. You have to overhaul the entire thing. Tackle it at the root. Even if it’s harder work and takes more time.”

“Because otherwise what happens? The rot returns. In all the same places. And it spreads. Worse than before. You know that – and I know that. That’s why this project has always been about fixing the foundations of this country.”

The Prime Minister has repeatedly promised that he will not raise taxes on “working people”, insisting during the election campaign that a Labour government would not increase VAT, income tax or National Insurance.

But his failure to rule out raising other taxes has led to accusations that the Treasury is plotting increases, such as capital gains tax and inheritance tax, as well as a possible raid on businesses.

Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, admitted last month that she would “have to increase taxes in the Budget” on Oct 30.

In his first remarks on the issue since Ms Reeves claimed that the Conservatives had left a £22 billion gap in the public finances, Sir Keir will go further and say his Government has discovered “not just an economic black hole but a societal black hole”.

He will say that if “we don’t take tough action across the board, we won’t be able to fix the foundations of the country like we need”.

“I won’t shy away from making unpopular decisions now if it’s the right thing for the country in the long term. That’s what a Government of service means,” the PM will add.

It comes after Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the Treasury, opened the door to an increase to employers’ National Insurance contributions, the tax paid by employers on their workers’ salaries.

He said last week that the promise not to increase “employee National Insurance” would be honoured, a softening of the Chancellor’s pledge last month to “not increase National Insurance”, without caveats.

PM to stand up for public sector pay rises

Sir Keir will also appear to defend handing inflation-busting pay rises to public sector workers, after increasing criticism that his party is caving to union paymasters.

Earlier this month, Ms Reeves announced pay rises for millions of workers including teachers and nurses, who will receive a 5.5 per cent pay boost, while prison service workers and senior NHS managers will see their pay increase by 5 per cent.

Meanwhile, some train drivers who were offered a bumper pay rise of 14 per cent over three years announced a fresh strike over a separate dispute 48 hours later.

In remarks that will be seen as an attempt to defend the offers, Sir Keir will say: “I defy anyone to tell me that you can grow an economy when people can’t get to work – because the transport system is broken.

“Or can’t return to work – because they’re stuck on an NHS waiting list. We’ve done more in seven weeks than the last government did in seven years. And these are just the first steps towards the change people voted for. The change I’m determined to deliver.”

Sir Keir is facing criticism over the Government’s choice to hand out inflation-busting pay rises to unions while axing the universal winter fuel allowance.

Starmer: Riot violence fuelled by populism

Speaking ahead of Parliament’s return next month, Sir Keir will also address the riots that spread across the country this summer and forced him to cancel his own holiday, claiming the violence was fuelled by “populism” and people exploiting “cracks in our society”.

The Prime Minister will draw a comparison with the 2011 London riots, when he was director of public prosecutions, and claim that the country is in a far worse state now.

He insisted that he did not want to release prisoners early, a move announced last month, but said that if the prison space had not been freed up, it would have made the response to the riots even more complex.

He will say: “When I think back to that time, I see just how far we’ve fallen. Because responding to those riots was hard, but dealing with the riots this summer was much harder.

“Not having enough prison spaces is about as fundamental a failure as you can get. And those people throwing rocks, torching cars, making threats – they didn’t just know the system was broken. They were betting on it. They were gaming it.

“They saw the cracks in our society after 14 years of populism and failure – and they exploited them. That’s what we have inherited.”

Richard Fuller MP, the Tory party chairman, said: “Just two months in and Keir Starmer has taken winter fuel payments off 10 million pensioners and showered billions of taxpayers’ money on his union paymasters.

“The soft-touch Labour Chancellor is squandering money whilst fabricating a financial black hole in an attempt to con the public into accepting tax rises, and literally leaving pensioners in the cold.”

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