Sir Keir Starmer has promised defence will be his “number one priority” as he points to “hard-edged” decisions.

The Prime Minister said: “I can tell you now that defence will be the number one priority at every spending review, including the next spending review.

He added: “I have taken the difficult decisions to make sure that we are safe as a country because that is my number one priority.”

Sir Keir argued the government has put “considerable” money into defence already.

The Prime Minister said that the Defensive Investment Plan outlines “further money on top of that”.

He told the BBC: “We’re living in a very volatile world. We’ve got the conflict in Ukraine now in its fifth year, and we’ve got conflict in the Middle East, specifically Iran, that is as dangerous and volatile a world as any of us have lived in.

“And we absolutely have to step up to that. That requires me, as Prime Minister, to make hard-edged decisions”