Two words from John Healey's resignation letter – "unwilling" and "unable" – have left Sir Keir Starmer politically wounded, as the defence secretary became the sixth minister to quit the Labour government in a month.
Healey's resignation on Thursday came on the day his long-promised Defence Investment Plan was due to be published. Instead, it collapsed because of internal rows over how to pay for it. In his letter, Healey wrote: "You have been unable and the Treasury has been unwilling to commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country."
“John Healey resigned as defence secretary, accusing Starmer of being 'unable and unwilling' to fund defence.”
He is the fourth full cabinet minister to resign after Louise Haigh, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting. The armed forces minister, Al Carns, also resigned bizarrely – giving TV interviews while still a minister, saying "my job is to steady the ship", then jumping off an hour later. Carns told the BBC he was not scared of a leadership contest: "If someone fires a starting gun, I'm not scared of gunfire."
The prime minister had hoped to use the Defence Investment Plan and a crackdown on social media for teenagers to project direction ahead of the G7 summit. Instead, he faces fresh pressure with a Nato defence ministers meeting next week, where new defence secretary Dan Jarvis – a veteran of tours in Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan – will have to explain the embarrassment.
Leadership speculation swirls around potential challengers including Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, health secretary Wes Streeting, and even Carns. Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar called on Starmer to "urgently address defence spending".
Healey, in an earlier interview published by the New Statesman, described the current period as "the most dangerous and uncertain times we've faced for decades" and said there would be "no repeat of the Iraq mistakes".
With the government already bruised by calamitous election results, the question now is whether Starmer can stop this becoming the epitaph of his premiership.