Andy Burnham, widely expected to become the UK's prime minister later this month, will have to find an additional £4.7 billion ($6.2bn) to close a defence funding gap.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced a long-delayed defence plan worth £15 billion, but documents revealed nearly a third of the funding is still unaccounted for and must be found in a budget later this year.

Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis sidestepped questions about whether Burnham was informed of the funding hole before the announcement, claiming only that discussions had taken place.

Opposition politicians and former military chiefs criticized the plan for failing to set a timeline for reaching 3% of GDP on defence spending, a step toward the UK's NATO commitment of 3.5% by 2035.

Starmer defended the plan, saying much of the additional funding would come from reallocating spending from other government departments.

Source: www.aljazeera.com