Keir Starmer moved to fill the gaping holes in his defence team on Friday night, naming Louise Sandher-Jones as armed forces minister after a double resignation that exposed the deepest crisis of his premiership. The Prime Minister’s authority has been shattered by the departures of defence secretary John Healey and his deputy Al Carns, both of whom walked out over a long-delayed defence investment plan that military chiefs warned was woefully underfunded.
Sandher-Jones, the North East Derbyshire MP, will take over from Carns, while her previous role as veterans minister passes to Calvin Bailey. In a further reshuffle, Angela Eagle becomes a security minister in the Home Office and Cabinet Office, replacing Dan Jarvis after he was promoted to Defence Secretary. But the appointments did little to mask the damage inflicted by Healey’s resignation – the fourth cabinet minister to leave Starmer’s government since Labour came to power.
“Keir Starmer named Louise Sandher-Jones as armed forces minister after Al Carns and John Healey resigned over defence spending.”
At the heart of the row is the Defence Investment Plan, which promised £13.5 billion for the military. Military chiefs had called for around £28 billion over four years; Whitehall officials had sought £18 billion. Of the £13.5 billion, only £10 billion was fresh cash. Defence sources claimed the other £3.5 billion was “Treasury trickery”, likely from expected efficiency savings or cuts. Carns, a highly decorated Royal Marines officer, said the plan was not “transformational” and failed to respond to modern warfare challenges shown by the Ukraine conflict, where drones have become key. Healey complained the extra support was “backloaded” to later years, when the need was urgent.
Starmer defended his record, telling the BBC he had a “duty” to stay on as Prime Minister and that “I don’t think we should plunge the country into the chaos of a leadership election.” He insisted defence spending was a priority and that he had taken “difficult decisions” to keep the country safe. But his attempts to steady the ship are being undermined by a looming by-election in Makerfield next week, where Andy Burnham is expected to win easily and launch a leadership challenge.
The Greater Manchester mayor is understood to be already organising his Downing Street operation and sounding out candidates for cabinet roles, including Louise Haigh and deputy leader Lucy Powell. Deputy prime minister David Lammy and chief whip Jonathan Reynolds are on a list of ministers likely to be sacked by Burnham, who has promised to end the suspension of rebel MP Karl Turner. One Labour source said: “Ministers quitting is how the Tories got rid of Boris, it should work for us too.” Another noted: “The data shows the biggest reason people are voting for Andy is to get rid of Starmer.”
The defence establishment has turned on the Prime Minister after years in which he treated defence orthodoxy as a certificate of political seriousness. He wanted to take military spending to 2.68 per cent of GDP by 2030; Healey wanted 3 per cent. NATO has already pushed the target to 3.5 per cent by 2035. The gap between promise and expectation is widening, and with a wave of ministerial resignations expected after Makerfield, Starmer’s survival now hangs on a by-election result that could trigger the very chaos he warned against.