I’ve known John Healey many years, and always found him effective, decent, diffident, thoughtful and principled.
It’s within that prism that he’s quit today as Defence Secretary unwilling to sell the indefensible and exposing that it is indefensible despite the Prime Minister’s words at PMQs where Kemi Badenoch pushed him over the whereabouts of the long overdue and strait jacketed Defence Investment Plan.
Healey doesn’t mince his words in his resignation letter to Keir Stramer:
“You have been unable, and the Treasury has been unwilling, to commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country at this time of rising threats”
Two quick points: It speaks to the weakness of an already weak Prime Minister that he’s “unable” to do this, or indeed much else, hamstrung by his backbenches stopping him finding the money in the one place he could – the Welfare budget. And further adding to Labour’s growing internal desire to see him step down.
It also says something about the problems of the state, and government that “the Treasury has been unwilling“. Too often the Treasury is the real holder of power, and not all those who wield that power inside it are elected or accountable. It has been the frustration of Prime Ministers of all stripes that HMT hold the final say on almost all Departmental plans, and indeed those of Number 10.
He goes on:
“The demands on defence have increased still further, as have the UK commitments you have rightly made to allies. Conflict in the Middle East, with the UK now leading the multination Strait of Hormuz military mission; High North Security, with the UK now leading NATO’s Arctic Sentry mission; increased Russian activity towards the UK and NATO nations and increased attacks in Ukraine, with the Paris Agreement confirming a British deployment to Ukraine after a ceasefire…
…You know what defence needs. You made the argument for this powerfully in your speech at the Munich Security Conference back in February. without a DIP that meets the moment in this way, I am being forced to make decisions that would reduce the readiness of our Forces and increase the risk to personnel on operations, and could make the country less safe.
After explaining that to you that I would not be able to accept a DIP settlement that does not give our Forces the resources they need, I am now left with no other option than to submit my resignation as your Defence Secretary”
It is a letter youngsters would describe as ‘shots fired’ – if we could afford the ammunition.
They will wound Starmer even more because it is exactly the argument the Conservatives have been making for months. It will be a relief to Andy Burnham locked as he is in the battle in Makerfield that attention will turn again, as it has so many times, to Starmer’s suitability for the job he holds and seems determined to hang onto, especially after Starmer may have felt Burnham’s ‘WASPI wobble’ was casting doubt on his suitability for the job.
For the Forces, manufacturers and contractors, and necessary supply chains waiting in desperation for the arrival of the DIP, now that it’s offering half of what was required just to stand still this is tragic confirmation of the paralysis at the heart of this government and the hollowness of the PM’s words when measured with his actions – or inactions.
ConservativeHome Assistant Editor Oliver Dean will be gathering reaction to this resignation as I write, but one small insight into the man at the centre of this story:
Three Labour politicians came to the Foreign Office during the evacuation of British Nationals from Sudan three years ago, in a highly volatile and dangerous situation when a civil war (still raging) broke out in April 2023. They were to be briefed on the evacuation operation under Privy Council protocols as the Official Opposition. Starmer, Lammy and Healey arrived in the then Foreign Secretary’s office. They all listened to the briefing which was professional and business like. It was Healey though who asked the most questions and the most incisive questions and had detail at the ready to ask those questions. He stood out. The other two, I say frankly, underwhelmed.
His loss is a blow to Labour not just Starmer. However I doubt this is the last we see of John Healey in government, for what inevitably must come next: a change at the top.