JOHN HEALEY is “only putting on pause” his plans for increasing Britain’s military spending until after the next election, peace campaigners warned today.

Unpopular cuts to social spending are likely to have played a role in this “welcome retreat” from the Chancellor’s decision to shelve his own defence spending target of 3 per cent of GDP by 2030.

Mr Healey resigned as defence secretary denouncing Sir Keir Starmer’s government for what he saw as insufficient funding ambitions for the military.

But government insiders have reportedly revealed Mr Healey’s first Budget in October will focus on filling a funding gap in defence equipment of nearly £5 billion left behind by Sir Keir when he announced the Defence Investment Plan.

This would leave Mr Healey’s much larger spending plans over which he resigned until a Treasury spending review in 2027.

Sources did however maintain that they would “set out a clear path to meet our 3.5 per cent Nato target in 2035 and set a target date for us to hit 3 per cent on that path.”

CND general secretary Sophie Bolt explained that the Chancellor is only putting off hard decisions surrounding cuts until after the next general election, “where declining living standards and cost-of-living pressures will certainly be high on the agenda for voters.”

Ms Bolt told the Morning Star: “The only ones who will be criticising this delayed increase will be profit-hungry arms companies and warmongers.

She added: “We mustn’t lose sight of the fact that the government is still going ahead with the outrageous £15bn hike to the military budget over its current term, as outlined in the Defence Investment Plan.

“This includes the purchase of nuclear-capable F-35A jets from the US, and whose full costings have not been provided or debated by MPs. This is coming from cuts to vital public services.

“If Healey is concerned about the worsening economic situation — as he should be — the answer does not lie in more military spending.”

Stop the War Coalition vice-chair Chris Nineham said: “This is a welcome retreat, one probably forced on him by a sense of the unpopularity of the social cuts the government is considering.

“[Mr Healey] remains a militarist, and as he himself says committed to the massive increase to 3.5 per cent of GDP on military spending in less than a decade. Bomber Burnham is on board with this too.”

Peace Pledge Union’s Anna Kharbanda said the Chancellor is not “backing down from that target, just putting off the tough decisions until next year.

“The plan is to still hit 3.5 per cent of GDP on the military by 2035, a Nato target set without public debate.”

She told the Star that what people really need from him instead is “more money for schools, hospitals, tackling climate change, and support for the most vulnerable — not billions more on weapons.

“If we really want to make the world safer, reinstate the aid budget to 0.5 per cent of GNI and invest in diplomacy and dialogue, not more arms.”

And Your Party MP Jeremy Corbyn cautioned: “When MPs stand up in Parliament to call for further increases in “defence spending,” do any of them pause for a second to think about what this actually means?

“It means spending money on weapons of death and destruction. It means financing the performance of RAF surveillance flights over Gaza, a mass graveyard of more than 73,000 people killed by Israel.

“In Iran, it means letting the United States use British air bases for its wholly illegal war, which has killed at least 3,468 people.”

Mr Corbyn told the Star: “We do not need to spend more money on bombs and bullets. We need to spend more on housing, schools and our NHS.”

And TSSA general secretary Maryam Eslamdoust warned: “Defence spending is necessary, but it must put our military personnel, their safety, welfare, health, housing and equipment at its core.

“It cannot be reduced to an arbitrary figure dictated by Donald Trump or a shopping list of expensive American weapons that does little to strengthen Britain’s defence industry or create jobs here at home.”