What was claimed
There was a £38 billion black hole in the defence budget in 2010.
Our verdict
This claim has never been properly justified, even when the National Audit Office and MPs have tried to check it.
Prime Minister repeats uncertain £38 billion defence budget 'black hole'
14 July 2014
The Prime Minister said this morning that, as part of the government's plan to tackle the deficit, it had seen off a £38 billion 'black hole' in the defence budget.
"Labour left a £38 billion black hole in the defence budget and a long list of over-running and over-budget equipment orders."
We see this being said time and again, but after we originally investigated the claim, we found that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) had provided little supporting evidence to back it up, and even a Select Committee of MPs didn't have much more luck in teasing out where the number was from.
Given the repeated use of the figure, we've asked the MoD if it will shed more light on this particular 'black hole'.