‘I resigned from the job I love for our country’ says Healey as he warns our enemies ‘do not follow timetables set by the Treasury’

Former Defense Secretary John Healey said he resigned on behalf of ‘our country’ after rejecting Sir Keir Starmer’s cash offer for the Armed Forces.

In his resignation speech in the House of Commons, Healey told MPs he ‘loved’ his job but believed his decision was ‘necessary to secure the future’ of the UK military.

Healey left the Ministry of Defense last week after Sir Keir backed Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s proposal for just £10bn of new funding for the Armed Forces, despite the growing threat posed by Russia to the security of the UK.

The government’s Defense Investment Plan (DIP) would put the UK in greater danger and increase the threat to troops, according to Mr Healey.

Healey’s heartbreaking assessment of the funding deal was backed up earlier today when the head of the UK Armed Forces gave evidence to a parliamentary committee.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton told the House of Lords International Relations and Defense Committee that fewer military operations may be possible depending on the funding deal backed by the Prime Minister.

While defense spending in the UK has increased from 2.3 per cent of GDP to 2.6 per cent of GDP since the last General Election, the current level of investment remains well below national security requirements.

Service chiefs have estimated that £28bn of additional cash is required over the next four years for higher operating costs and new equipment.

Al Carns, one of Healey’s junior ministers, told MPs in the House of Commons that the Defense Investment Plan was outdated

Labor has not yet set a date for defense spending to rise to 3 per cent of GDP or when the UK will reach the long-term NATO target of 3.5 per cent for military personnel and equipment.

This afternoon Healey told the House of Commons: ‘It is with great regret that I have taken the decision to resign. I remain confident in the decision. I believe that over time it will be deemed necessary to secure the future of our Armed Forces.

‘My decision was not about my career, it was about our country. I loved the job. Still, I won’t miss three phone calls to bed or 3 a.m. phone calls. I’m also proud of what we’ve achieved.

‘But I find that the current Defense Investment Plan falls well short of what is needed. There is a 0.68 percent increase from next year to 2030, with no date to reach 3 percent. There is no path to 3.5 percent

‘By 2030, more than half of NATO members will spend 3 percent or more. ‘We must not be left behind as the Allies seek Britain’s leadership.’

Mr Healey, who has been an MP for more than 30 years, thanked his Cabinet colleagues for offering to cut their budgets to allow additional investment in defence.

Labor is divided on defence; MPs on the left of the party favor more spending on the welfare state and other public services.

Indeed, the removal of the two-child benefit cap by the Chancellor represents a higher investment than the £10bn investment in additional defense spending.

Mr Healey added: ‘Our enemies do not follow Treasury tariffs. I appreciate how difficult the situation is for our Cabinet colleagues. But not all of this has to be done with interruptions.

‘We need a bigger view of national resilience, from adversarial to transport to health. Security must pass through the government like letters in a boulder.’

Former Armed Forces minister Al Carns, who was seated two people next to the former Defense Secretary, also resigned a few hours after his boss Healey.

The high-ranking former Royal Marines officer spoke in the House of Commons after Healey. Carns described his decision as ‘extremely difficult’.

While Healey’s attack on Downing Street focused on defense spending, Carns criticized the decision-making process on what to buy and what not to buy, and the failure to take into account the lessons of the conflict in Ukraine.

Carns said: ‘I resigned because I no longer believed that the DIP was preparing us for the wars we were likely to fight. A drone can achieve results at a fraction of the cost of a fighter jet. Imagine 12,000 drones in the air over a single town, that’s the reality. And 90,000 casualties are attributed to drones. High quality munitions cannot be reproduced at a rate that would be sustainable over a long campaign.’

Carns also defended veterans of the United Kingdom’s military campaign in Northern Ireland. While in office the former Armed Forces minister was forced to support the Government’s Succession Bill, which made it easier for former terrorists to take legal action against British troops.

The Daily Mail’s ‘Stop Betrayal’ campaign highlighted how ex-soldiers were being persecuted into old age due to the Government’s failure to prevent such fake cases.

Freed from the shackles of collective responsibility, Carns supported this newspaper’s claims.

He said: ‘I left because I could no longer bear the continued failure of our veterans in Northern Ireland. Our country has a debt to those it puts in danger through legal orders. This mission does not end when that uniform appears. Too many veterans carried uncertainty for too long.

‘The IRA has failed to achieve its aims through terrorism. We must be careful not to help them achieve these goals by other means. Constant and never-ending legal wrangling that undermines the contract between the nation and those who serve is neither a good use of taxpayer money nor an effective enforcement strategy.

‘Investigations, investigations and an independent commission create a hierarchy of truth that could cost us hundreds of millions of pounds; By doing so, we can portray the state as the aggressor, support the political objections of our enemies, and cause untold suffering to those deployed solely to protect us.

‘We have neither the political capital nor the resources to devote to this unfair journey. Security means more than military force alone.

‘I believe that we can once again build a country that provides security in the broadest sense of the word. The security of our nation. Safety for our communities. Safety for our working families. Security for the next generation. I’m sure this resignation has begun.’