Rachel Reeves is to hand the Armed Forces a funding boost of almost ￡3 billion in the Budget, The Telegraph understands.

       The Chancellor is set to announce an increase to the defence budget for next year in a move that will be welcomed by military chiefs.

       Her decision will end fears that defence will bear the brunt of the “difficult decisions” she says are needed to fix the public finances.

       It will mean that the proportion of national wealth spent on the military will decline slightly, but remain roughly stable at 2.3 per cent of GDP.

       Part of the extra cash is expected to be used to cover the ￡400 million a year cost of giving soldiers a 6 per cent pay rise backdated to April.

       The money will also fund the purchase of weapons to replenish stockpiles which have been depleted by arms donations to Ukraine.

       While the new funds will be welcomed by military leaders, they will not be enough to tackle all of the funding challenges the Armed Forces face.

       It is understood the ￡2.9 billion injection will be a one-off while the Government conducts a wider review into future defence spending.

       Ms Reeves will not set out a pathway to increasing the military budget to 2.5 per cent of GDP at the Budget, as has been demanded by the Tories.

       Last week Sir Keir Starmer said ministers would set out plans for hitting that figure “in due course” but refused to give further details.

       Before the general election Rishi Sunak, the former prime minister, committed to increasing defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by the end of the decade.

       His decision was expected to add ￡23 billion to the military budget by 2030 and was to be partly bankrolled by shrinking the size of the civil service.

       Almost half of that amount was set to go on growing the domestic defence industry and boosting stockpiles of weapons, including air defences.

       While in opposition, Labour did not commit to the same plan, arguing that it was unfunded.

       It comes after John Healey, the Defence Secretary, warned that Britain was no longer in a position where the Armed Forces could defend the country.

       Speaking earlier this month, Mr Healey said that the military had been “hollowed out” and “underfunded” by the Tories to such an extent that it was not ready to fight a war.

       He said: “The UK, in keeping with many other nations, has essentially become very skilled and ready to conduct military operations.

       “What we’ve not been ready to do is to fight. Unless we are ready to fight, we are not in shape to deter.”

       Senior military figures later hit back at the remarks, saying that should a war break out with Russia then they would “back the British soldier every day”.

       The Tories have in turn accused the Government of putting Britain’s security at risk by refusing to match their 2.5 per cent spending commitment.

       Ben Wallace, the former defence secretary, warned that the failure to do so represented “another broken promise from Starmer”.

       “He said he would put defence of the realm first but in fact he has put the NHS first and let defence take a cut,” Mr Wallace told The Telegraph.

       It comes following an internal Cabinet row over which departments would be expected to bear the brunt of spending constraints to balance the books.

       Cabinet ministers wrote directly to Sir Keir earlier this month complaining to him about their budgets being squeezed in real terms by Ms Reeves.

       They included Angela Rayner, the Housing Secretary, Louise Haigh, the Transport Secretary, and Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary.

       The Chancellor told a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday that “the inheritance the Tories left meant there would have to be difficult decisions on spending, welfare and tax”.