{"id":79653,"date":"2026-07-09T08:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T08:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/79653\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T08:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T08:18:09","slug":"rolls-royce-boost-after-burnham-pledges-defence-investment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/79653\/","title":{"rendered":"Rolls Royce boost after Burnham pledges defence investment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\tThursday 09 July 2026 8:48 am\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\"Andy\t\tAndy Burnham said he will focus defence spending on British firms\t<\/p>\n

Shares in London-listed defence firms including Rolls-Royce and Babcock rose on Thursday morning after Prime Minister-to-be Andy Burnham pledged to drive investment into Britain\u2019s defence industry.<\/p>\n

The Makerfield MP said strengthening Britain\u2019s defence will be his \u201cfirst priority\u201d if he enters Number 10 \u2013 as he is expected to later this month \u2013 but insisted he would \u201censure we back British workers and businesses\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

FTSE 100-listed Rolls Royce led Thursday morning\u2019s gains, rising two per cent to 1,426p, while Babcock, BAE and Qinetiq also rose on the market open.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Writing in The Times<\/a>, Burnham set out a series of foreign policy pledges which he claimed would strengthen the UK\u2019s resilience against external shocks like the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the Russia-Ukraine war.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe global picture is darkening and we must take concerted action to enhance our resilience, starting at the local level,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\t\tDefence spending can boost growth, Burnham says<\/p>\n

The former Mayor of Greater Manchester added: \u201cAs prime minister, my priority will be protecting the UK by boosting defence spending, reviving local industry and strengthening our alliances.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burnham\u2019s pledge to double down on defence investment comes just weeks after Sir Keir Starmer delivered the delayed defence investment plan<\/a> (DIP) as one of his last acts as Prime Minister.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRead more<\/p>\n

\t\t\tRolls-Royce and BAE shares fired up on Starmer defence investment plan<\/a><\/p>\n

Defence secretary John Healey and armed forces minister Al Carns resigned from Starmer\u2019s government in the lead up to the publication of the plan, which left<\/a> Burnham with a \u00a35bn funding gap to fill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, former Nato secretary general Lord Robertson warned<\/a> that Britain needs to be \u201cwoken up\u201d to the threat of war.<\/p>\n

The UK\u2019s allies were \u201cdisturbed\u201d by the delay to the DIP, which he said was \u201cunconvincing\u201d despite setting out plans to increase military spending by \u00a315bn over the next four years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Burnham to \u2018level with public\u2019<\/p>\n

Burnham appealed to the lives of working people as a reason to invest in \u201chard power,\u201d referring to soaring energy bills and food prices caused by the wars in Iran and Ukraine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when hackers brought Jaguar Land Rover to a standstill, it was workers in the Midlands who paid the price, with thousands of jobs at risk and nearly \u00a32 billion wiped from our economy. But Britain is not powerless in the face of these threats,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Burnham said he would \u201clevel with\u201d the British public over the amount of money needed to meet the UK\u2019s pledge to spend at least 3.5 per cent of GDP on defence by 2035.<\/p>\n

The former Manchester mayor added that reducing Britain\u2019s dependency on foreign defence is \u201ccritical for both our economic and national security\u201d, adding that he would build closer ties with European countries on defence.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRead more<\/p>\n

\t\t\tUK government borrowing overshoots expectations on day Burnham elected<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\tSimilarly tagged content: <\/p>\n

\t\t\tSections\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\tCategories\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\tPeople & Organisations\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thursday 09 July 2026 8:48 am Andy Burnham said he will focus defence spending on British firms Shares…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[20731],"tags":[7786,21914,21234,8160,28294,633,1815,4358,2016,18,14,35416,1238],"class_list":["post-79653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rolls-royce","tag-andy-burnham","tag-babcock","tag-bae","tag-bae-systems","tag-burnham","tag-business","tag-defence","tag-defence-investment-plan","tag-nato","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-qinetiq","tag-rolls-royce"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116889039921202128","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}