British finance minister John Healey will make defense investment a central part of the government’s effort to revive Britain’s weak economic growth, using a Labour Party conference speech to outline support for companies taking part in major military projects. The message places defense manufacturing at the center of Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s pledge to reindustrialize the country. The Defense News report said Healey will deliver the speech Monday, his first annual Labour conference address as finance minister.
Healey is expected to describe a “new age of industrialization” in which British companies deliver defense programs worth billions of pounds. One example is a plan for three new floating submarine docks on the Clyde in Scotland. The projects are intended to connect national security spending with industrial capacity and employment, rather than treating defense procurement solely as a military budget decision.
“By backing British shipyards, we are not only boosting national security but also securing resilience in the industries that will drive growth today while building the capabilities the country needs for the future,” Healey said in a statement carried by Defense News. His argument links support for domestic shipbuilding to both defense resilience and wider economic growth.
The government is presenting defense-sector jobs as one route to higher employment and lower pressure on the welfare bill. The conference message is aimed at Labour lawmakers and members, with ministers seeking to show how industrial investment could generate work while addressing the country’s economic weakness. The approach also reflects competing political demands: Burnham has promised relief from cost-of-living pressures, while new spending would come as public finances face constraints.
Burnham has pledged to raise the core defense budget to 3.5% of gross domestic product by 2035, matching a NATO target identified in the report. The government has not yet set out whether it will reach a separate goal of spending 3% of GDP on defense by 2030. Healey previously sought that target while serving as defense minister under former Prime Minister Keir Starmer but did not secure Starmer’s support, a disagreement that contributed to his resignation from the post.
The industrial strategy faces an immediate funding problem. The government must address a £4.7 billion, or $6.2 billion, gap in its Defence Investment Plan, which military experts cited by Defense News have said does not go far enough to meet Britain’s promised increase in defense spending. Healey’s first budget as finance minister is scheduled for Oct. 28, giving the spending commitments a near-term fiscal test.
Defense Minister Wes Streeting has also framed procurement as an industrial policy. He said defense spending should strengthen Britain broadly and called for the government to buy from British companies wherever domestic industry can deliver. That position would direct more of the economic benefit from future defense programs toward British shipyards and other firms, although the report does not specify procurement rules or individual contract awards.
The government’s defense message is also being shaped by pressure beyond industrial policy. The report said conflict in the Middle East is affecting energy costs, adding to the financial pressures facing Britain as ministers prepare the budget. The next decisions will involve the scale of defense spending, the treatment of the investment-plan shortfall and whether the promised targets can be reconciled with the government’s cost-of-living commitments.