Badenoch attacks Burnham over defence spending as military chiefs warn of security risks

As Russian pressure on Europe intensifies, a familiar tension in democratic governance resurfaces in Britain: how a society allocates its resources reveals what it believes it must protect, and at what cost to whom. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has challenged Prime Minister Andy Burnham to choose between welfare and defence, while Burnham resists the premise that such a choice must be made at all. The October budget looms as the moment when philosophical disagreement must yield to arithmetic.