John Healey's resignation as defence secretary has dealt a potentially fatal blow to Keir Starmer's leadership, with the prime minister now facing a Nato summit in July where Britain can expect a 'ferocious battering' from its allies.
In his resignation letter, Healey told the prime minister: '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.' The sentence, from one of the most instinctively loyal members of the government, was effectively a demand for the resignation of both Starmer and the chancellor, Rachel Reeves.
“Defence Secretary John Healey resigns, accusing PM Starmer of failing to fund defence amid Russian threat.”
Healey reminded Starmer that the prime minister had said only last week that he believed 'there could be an attack by Russia on Nato as soon as 2030. You know what defence needs.' The resignation came amid a growing sense of crisis, with Sky News reporting 'More resignations for Keir Starmer' and asking 'Can it get any worse?'
The defence funding row has been brewing for months. Starmer and Reeves have seen intelligence warnings, heard leaders including President Zelensky spell out the threat, and witnessed the threadbare resources of the Royal Navy. They commissioned and read the Strategic Defence Review, whose co-author, former Labour defence secretary and Nato secretary general George Robertson, attacked Starmer for 'corrosive complacency'. The extra money eventually offered to Healey amounted to just £10 billion, not the £28 billion the armed forces thought necessary just to stand still.
The publication of the Defence Investment Plan, expected next week, was already set to be a political nightmare. The heads of the armed forces were prepared to denounce it as a 'thin-gruel' recipe for cuts, while Labour MPs were conspiring to stop any cuts to welfare, the NHS or other domestic budgets. Starmer was caught between the two sides ahead of a crucial Nato summit in early July.
Now, according to the New Statesman, 'whatever chance there was of the PM clinging on seems gone now.' The same article concluded: 'These are the end times for Keir Starmer’s government.'