defence secretary quits over funding cuts
Updated ,first published
Belfast: Britain’s defense minister has resigned in frustration over cuts to national security spending in an extraordinary move that has thrown the government into crisis and increased pressure for a leadership fight to replace Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Defense Minister John Healey announced his resignation hours before a meeting with his Australian counterpart Richard Marles in Portsmouth, where he will outline his goals for the key AUKUS alliance on nuclear-powered submarines.
In a growing crisis over national security and Starmer’s authority, Armed Forces Minister Al Carns followed Healey into quitting government and was joined by Labor MP Pamela Nash, who resigned as parliamentary private secretary in the defense portfolio.
The decisions confirmed that the cabinet was divided over whether to increase defense spending and find savings from social welfare programs to meet the changes; Days before potential leadership challenger Andy Burnham hopes to win a seat in parliament and launch a formal bid for the top job.
Healey, seen as one of the government’s most stable cabinet ministers, announced on Monday that he had no choice but to resign after discovering that new defense spending would not meet the standards he believed were necessary for the country’s security.
The decision stunned the government Healey published the letter he sent to Starmer He complained about what he considered dangerously weak spending on the Defense Investment Plan negotiated between cabinet ministers.
“At this time of increasing threats, you have failed to allocate the resources the country needs to defend the country and the Treasury has been reluctant,” Healey wrote to Starmer.
“As I have outlined to you, by working multinationally and as other European nations have done, there are credible ways to meet the medium-term funding challenges that will allow us to maintain our ability to deliver on the missions of our Labor government.
“You know what defense needs. Without a DIP who meets the moment in this way, I am forced to make decisions that will reduce the readiness of our forces, increase the risk to personnel in operations and make the country less safe.”
The resignation comes a month after former health minister Wes Streeting quit the cabinet and moved to the backbench out of frustration with Starmer and the government’s direction, while announcing he was willing to represent the leadership in a vote among Labor members.
Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, will have his fate decided by voters in next week’s by-election for the seat of Makerfield, which he hopes to win so he can return to parliament at Westminster and begin a formal challenge to replace Starmer.
A poll of Labor Party members last month found that in a head-to-head race, 59 per cent would choose Burnham and 37 per cent would back Starmer.
But Streeting will fight to oust the prime minister. YouGov found that in a similar neck-and-neck race, 65 per cent would choose Starmer and just 15 per cent would back Streeting.
Healey’s sudden resignation complicates an Australian diplomatic mission to the United Kingdom this week to bolster the defense alliance and accelerate work on the AUKUS project, at a time of deep concern that British shipbuilders are moving too slowly to build a new fleet of nuclear-powered submarines.
Marles, who is deputy prime minister and defense minister, joined Foreign Secretary Penny Wong at a meeting with Healey and British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper in London on Wednesday.
Healey sent a strong signal at Wednesday’s meeting that he plans to keep his job, saying he would speak to Marles at a meeting on Ukraine next week and emphasizing his personal commitment to the AUKUS program.
Asked by reporters on Wednesday about spending levels, Healey accused the 14-year-old Conservative government of doing too little on defence, and promised progress on building the new submarine fleet, known as SSN-AUKUS, which uses a common design for UK and Australian ships.
“You don’t reverse this, you don’t fix this overnight,” he said of the spending.
“But when it comes to submarines, it’s a personal priority for me, it’s a personal priority for the new First Sea Lord to raise the levels, the tempo and the efficiency of our maintenance programme, to raise the level of infrastructure that will enable better maintenance.”
Marles was due to meet Healey again in Portsmouth on Thursday local time (early Friday, AEST) but the resignation disrupted the Australian mission. Marles visited naval facilities in Portsmouth but canceled plans for a press conference while some Australian journalists arrived at the event.
The loss of the Healey and the wider upheaval in the British government are fueling the debate over AUKUS in Australia at a time when the US is behind on its target to build more submarines and the UK must also speed up construction.
Defense expert Sophia Gaston said the changes did not raise doubts about AUKUS because its budget was protected in the UK’s defense investment plan.
Gaston, a senior fellow at the Center for State Administration and National Security at King’s College London, said Healey’s resignation would force Starmer into tough talks on spending cuts to fund security spending.
He said the spending plans currently on the agenda “will not be enough” to address the deteriorating security environment.
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David Crowe is the European correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect with: X or email.
