The GB News commentator said Andy Burnham has an “unbelievably difficult” road ahead.

Andy Burnham wearing navy blazer

Andy Burnham will be forced to address the defence ‘black hole’ left behind by Keir Starmer (Image: Getty)

Aspiring Prime Minister Andy Burnham has a huge uphill battle ahead. Appearing on Wednesday’s instalment of GB News, Tali Fraser, Commissioning Editor at The Spectator, slammed Sir Keir Starmer for leaving behind a defence ‘black hole’ of £5billion.

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“There was a call Andy Burnham had before the Defence Investment Plan was published to basically get a briefing of what he should be expecting as he’s the one that’s going to have to be seeing this through,” Fraser explained.

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Revealing that Burnham would be required to find £4.75billion by next autumn, should he become the next PM, the journalist suggested that the budding Labour leader would have been “astonished” after realising that he’d be forced to “figure this” defence crisis out.

Keir Starmer Speech Launches His Government's Long-Awaited Defence Investment Plan

Keir Starmer showed his true colours in huge blow to Burnham (Image: Getty)

Noting that Burnham has an “unbelievably difficult” situation in front of him, Fraser added that this would be further complicated by the fact that the “Labour party that doesn’t want to see any cuts to anything”.

A major blow to Burnham, Labour’s long-awaited and delayed Defence Investment Plan was published on Tuesday. Arriving 10 months behind schedule, the plan confirmed that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) would receive an additional £15billion, a figure which falls short of the £28billion needed to achieve recommendations accepted by the government in last year’s Strategic Defence Review.

Speaking with the Express, the Shadow Defence Secretary James Cartlidge blasted Burnham over a recent speech, in which he called for a “rewired Britain” while neglecting to mention the ongoing defence crisis.

“What about the rewiring of defence?” Cartlidge said. “Where is the defence of the realm, which is the number one responsibility of any government? Where was that in his speech?”

Warning Burnham of the mammoth task ahead, Cartlidge declared: “If the government doesn’t have a plan to cut welfare and fund defence […] they are not going to be successful.”

Former Defence Secretary John Healey has also weighed in, remarking: “More needs to be done in the months ahead”.