John Healey’s resignation as defence secretary has laid bare a bitter struggle over military funding, with Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy admitting that negotiations inside the government are “not finished” and that “this negotiation is happening as we speak.”
Healey quit on Thursday alongside his junior minister Al Carns, accusing Sir Keir Starmer of failing to provide the money required to “defend the country at a time of rising threats.” Allies of the former defence secretary told the BBC that “more money is coming, but only as a result of Healey resigning… this is another unbelievable U-turn.”
“John Healey resigned as defence secretary over spending; Lisa Nandy says talks 'not finished'”
The defence investment plan – a decade-long blueprint for new military equipment and infrastructure – was due last autumn but has been repeatedly delayed. Downing Street insists it will be published before next month’s Nato summit, though it is not expected this week. Nandy, appearing on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, rejected suggestions that Starmer had been forced to re-examine the plan because of the resignations. The prime minister, she said, had been “clear that the first responsibility of any government was defence” and that they had to “meet this moment.” She added that she was talking to officials in her own department about making funding available.
The new Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis is now reviewing the plan “in current draft form” and holding discussions with the chancellor and the prime minister, according to Nandy. Jarvis told the Sunday Telegraph that he had a responsibility to ensure the armed forces got the equipment and funding they needed, adding: “That is the challenge that we have at a point of constrained fiscal resource.”
Al Carns, the former armed forces minister, told the same BBC programme that the country needed “a really honest, open and courageous debate about where the money is going now.” Conservative shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge offered cross-party co-operation and proposed cutting the welfare budget, restoring the two-child benefit cap and reducing spending on net zero energy policies.
Healey’s resignation letter, published after his departure, revealed a deeper frustration. According to the New Statesman, he believed Starmer was unable to control an unwilling Treasury. The promised financial leeway was denied, leaving Healey with the choice of accepting belittlement or resigning. He had arrived with a well-developed plan to overhaul the Ministry of Defence – a Defence Reform programme that would have created a military strategic headquarters and a national armaments director, making senior individuals accountable for outcomes. But institutional inertia and turf-preservation conspired to thwart those reforms. Without a demonstrable change in effectiveness, the Treasury could plausibly argue it was prudent not to throw good money after bad.
With the Nato summit looming and a defence plan still unpublished, the question now is whether Jarvis can deliver what Healey could not – and at what cost.