While Westminster is consumed by the fallout from the Budget, I can reveal there is another major headache on the horizon for Keir Starmer – a new confrontation with the armed forces over defence spending.

I’m told there was an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday in the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in which the Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, and the three heads of the services sat down to discuss the defence investment plan, which governs day-to-day budgets after the recent Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR).

At one point the chiefs threw out all the civil servants and their military aides. Together they agreed to write an unprecedented letter to John Healey, the Defence Secretary, explaining that the SDSR is no longer deliverable on the current b

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