The Conservative Party says it would cut funding for green energy projects and redirect the money into defence, arguing the UK needs to be ready for war.

Party leader Kemi Badenoch says a future Conservative government would move £17bn into the military, calling defence the government’s top priority.

Badenoch said: "The next Conservative government will move funding from [Energy Secretary] Ed Miliband's vanity Net Zero projects and use it to back our military to accelerate their war readiness."

The party says a new Sovereign Defence Fund, backed by private investment, could mobilise up to £50bn.

Under the plans, £6bn would be moved from research and development to the Ministry of Defence, and £11bn from the National Wealth Fund would be redirected from clean energy projects to defence and national resilience.

"Look at their record: their time in office starved our forces of funding, drove down morale and left Britain less safe. They did it before, and they'd do it again," a Conservative party spokesperson said.

Labour has dismissed the proposals as “fantasy figures”, saying the Conservatives left the armed forces underfunded during their time in power.

The UK government has pledged to increase defence spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2027 and 3.5% by 2035, but the Conservatives argue this is too slow and are calling for spending to reach 3% by the end of the decade.

Under the proposals, the National Wealth Fund, launched last year, would be renamed the National Defence and Resilience Bank.

Originally set up to support economic growth and clean energy, its remit was expanded in March to include investments linked to the UK’s defence and security.

Meanwhile, Chief of the Defence Staff Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton said the pace of private investment in the defence industry was “painfully slow” and urged more young people to pursue careers in the sector.

Earlier this year, the government launched UK Defence Innovation, an organisation with an annual budget of at least £400m to invest in new technologies and boost jobs. However, a long-awaited defence investment plan, expected in the autumn, has been delayed.

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