PEACE activists and disability rights campaigners hit back at Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy after she promised further cuts across government departments to fund Britain’s war machine.

Ms Nandy said on Sunday that ministers were engaged in negotiations on shifting resources for the Defence Investment Plan (Dip) ahead of the Nato summit next month.

John Healey and Al Carns stepped down as defence secretary and armed forces minister respectively last week, accusing Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer of failing to appropriately fund the delayed defence spending plan.

On her rounds of Sunday TV talk shows, Ms Nandy said “discussions are ongoing” to find more money for the rise in military spending that they were requesting.

The Culture Secretary said she was looking at the possibility of cuts in her own department, while cuts to welfare have also been raised.

She told Sky News: “There’s a clear picture emerging from this government that we have moved resources from other departments in order to fund defence; that includes mine and it includes other departments as well, and we’re continuing to do that.

“So defence remains the highest priority, and I don’t agree that we’re not committing the resources that we need.”

But Disabled People Against Cuts co-founder Linda Burnip says that cutting spending further would hit disabled people hardest, adding that many are already forced to choose between the “vital social care they need and eating.”

She told the Star: “If the government wants more money for defence spending, my suggestion would be that they start by limiting MPs’ expenses, removing subsidies from food and drink for MPs and others in Parliament and forgoing any further pay increases for MPs and Lords.

“They could easily increase taxation on the very rich rather than pushing disabled people and low-paid workers into further poverty.”

A Stop the War Coalition spokesperson said: “The likes of Lisa Nandy doing the media rounds justifying choosing guns over butter do so as public opinion is increasingly hostile to that option.”

They highlighted Ipsos polling on the issue published last week, which found that about 50 per cent of Brits oppose rises in arms spending “even if it means increased taxes.”

Stop the War added that 45 per cent of those polled oppose arms spending rises if it means less investment in public services.