John Healey’s resignation as defence secretary is devastating for this Prime Minister and Chancellor.
Healey is considered to be a principled man, loyal and pragmatic, not a troublemaker who actively briefs against Sir Keir Starmer, like some of his Cabinet colleagues do.
The accusation that Healey levels against Rachel Reeves and Starmer is grave. He believes they are jeopardising national security and failing in their first duty in office: the safety of the Realm.
Reeves is “unwilling” to do what’s required to defend the country, he states publicly.
Meanwhile, Healey’s observation on Starmer is telling. The Prime Minister is “unable” to stand up to the Treasury, Healey says – depicting his own leader as too weak to drive through a plan that Starmer has helped to shape.
He warns the Prime Minister that he is breaching “the UK commitments you have rightly made to allies”.
Lastly, he suggests that Starmer now lacks the authority over his own Cabinet to compel them to fall into line behind his decisions, implying that he is Prime Minister in name only.
Key context: The Treasury and the Ministry of Defence do have legitimate complaints about one another.
Britain’s defence procurement has been disgraceful, a catalogue of mismanagement, overstretch, poor prioritisation and dismal cost control. The bean counters have little confidence that money will be spent wisely.
But the threats faced by the UK are genuine and growing. The under-investment (from successive governments) is obvious to anyone given a glimpse of British military readiness.
Planes and boats are routinely raided for parts to keep other craft functional. Look at the UK’s attack submarines, the hunter killers on which the entire nuclear deterrent rests. Their whereabouts are supposed to be a mystery. Yet again, however, they are all in port, with most of them stuck in a maintenance logjam.
Any government expects to inherit problems. But ministers and officials are judged on their ability to make decisions – including hard compromises – and to then deliver.
Healey’s principled resignation is an indictment of the Prime Minister’s and the Chancellor’s ability to do just that.
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