Union leaders are criticising the Chancellor's plan to close the £4.7bn gap in the Defence Investment Plan partly by cutting capital budgets in other departments.
Paul Nowak, the TUC general secretary, said that "any cuts to departmental capital budgets will be met with real concern", according to the Morning Star.
Jo Grady, the UCU general secretary, was more direct. The paper reports her as saying: "It is wrong to commit to huge increases in spending on weapons and war while vital services struggle."
The Morning Star reports that John Healey linked his approach of "looking hard at public spending" to meeting the NATO commitment of defence spending at 3.5% of GDP by 2035. In the Commons he used the phrase in explaining how he would fund the Defence Investment Plan. Neither he nor the Treasury has said which departments' capital budgets will be cut, or by how much.
The TUC had previously said that an 8% bank surcharge would raise £9bn over four years. That estimate has not been independently checked.