John Healey resigns latest: Starmer ally says defence spending plan falls short at ‘dangerous’ time in scathing letter

Resignations from Sir Keir Starmer’s cabinet could “cripple the government due to a lack of leadership”, a former Labor shadow chancellor has warned.

John McDonnell, who served in the party’s shadow cabinet from 2015 to 2020, said the second major resignation in a month pointed to “considerable instability” in the government.

“The second member of Keir Starmer’s cabinet to resign in a month,” he wrote to X in response to John Healey’s resignation. “Despite a large majority in parliament, there is considerable instability in this administration, and if this problem is not resolved soon, it could cripple the government due to lack of leadership.”

John Healey was widely seen as one of the most trusted members of Sir Keir Starmer’s senior team. A stalwart who had never publicly turned the tables before, he also steered the Defense Department through his support for Ukraine and his response to the Iran war. Even if Sir Keir was not facing a potential challenge to his leadership from Andy Burnham, replacing him would be a difficult task.

The Scotland secretary is already in the cabinet and is known to have ambitions beyond his current role. A former minister in the last Labor government, he is a highly experienced politician who could be seen as a reliable pair of hands.

The current Armed Forces minister is a former Royal Marine who served five tours of duty in Afghanistan. He would be a popular choice for the role among Labor MPs. But could he really sign up to a defense investment plan that Mr Healey complained would force him to make decisions that would “increase the risk to personnel in operations and make the country less safe”?

He is also a minister in the Ministry of Defense and has been responsible for defense preparedness and industry since last September. A Plymouth MP and the son of a former Royal Navy submariner, he has knowledge of defense issues that could help steer the department through this turbulent period.

John Healey’s resignation has left Sir Keir Starmer vulnerable to accusations that he has failed to protect Britain’s security.

Opposition MPs were quick to publicly call out the prime minister and his chancellor following the former defense minister’s damning resignation letter.

Conservative MP and former foreign secretary James Cleverly said the resignation showed Healey “clearly takes the defense of the country and the defense of our interests more seriously than Keir Starmer or Rachel Reeves”.

Reform UK’s Robert Jenrick accused the government of “having all the money in the world for Ed Milliband’s crazy schemes, foreign aid and foreign benefits. But nothing for our armed forces.”

In a damning letter, John Healey resigned as defense secretary over the government’s failure to properly fund the Defense Investment Plan (DIP).

Sir Keir Starmer insisted Dip would be published before this summer’s NATO summit, but the government has long delayed it due to wrangling over funding.

The plan was called for almost exactly a year ago by the government’s Strategic Defense Review, which set out a vision for Britain’s defense over the next decade.

Dip aimed to “present SDR’s vision” by detailing the capabilities and numbers behind the strategy.

In a letter, Mr Healey said the prime minister had “failed and the Treasury has been unwilling to allocate the resources the country needs to defend the country at this time of increasing threats”.

The plan, originally called by the strategic defense review almost exactly a year ago, was long delayed by wrangling over funding.

John Healey becomes the fourth cabinet minister to leave Sir Keir Starmer’s front bench since coming to power and the second to resign over policy differences, after Wes Streeting left his post as health secretary last month amid fallout from Labour’s local election losses.

His letter received praise from Conservative MPs, with veterans Tom Tugendhat and Ben Obese-Jecty describing it as “principled”.

Mr Tugendhat, the former defense minister, said the letter “makes it clear that this administration has failed”.

He added: “I have criticized every party for the situation we are in, but the truth is now clear: complacent confidence in peace is over. We must rearm.”

John Healey said his resignation letter was one he “never expected to write”. The defense secretary, typically a very loyal Labor minister, is not one to give Labor trouble. That’s what makes his warning letter to Starmer so damning.

Mr Healey pulls no punches in his criticism of the lack of funding in the defense investment plan, acknowledging that the Prime Minister has led efforts to step up internationally on Ukraine’s behalf and “establish the UK as Europe’s leading voice in NATO”.

“In this period of increasing threats, you were unable to allocate the resources the nation needed to defend the country, and the Treasury was reluctant,” he wrote.

John Healey’s resignation is a shock – if only because he was such a loyal minister – but when you look at recent warnings from key military figures about Britain’s defence, it’s also no surprise.

Concerns are growing that we will not be able to defend ourselves in the face of increasing global turbulence. In recent months, the former chief of the Royal Navy has warned that Britain’s armed forces are on the “brink of disaster” due to a lack of investment, while Lord Stirrup, the former head of the Armed Forces, warned that a poor announcement on funding would continue the services’ decades-long “gap”.

Clearly, on the upcoming defense investment plan, Healey believes Starmer has failed to adequately heed these warnings, leaving the former foreign secretary with no option but to leave his post.