Growth claims rely on undefined jobs and purchasing rules

The plan says defence investment may potentially support nearly 60,000 additional direct and indirect jobs. That wording permits a broad range of employment to be attributed to the programme without defining how the total will be measured. A target to increase spending with small and medium-sized enterprises by 50 percent by 2028 may also encourage prime contractors to count ordinary subcontracting toward the goal. The promised buy-British policy remains incomplete because the document says a definition of a British company will be published later. These measures could help domestic industry, but their impact cannot be judged until the government supplies firm definitions and accounting rules.