Monday 15 June 2026 11:00 am  |  Updated:  Monday 15 June 2026 11:01 am

John Healey has delivered a fatal blow to Starmer’s premiership

By: Eliot Wilson

Share

Facebook Share on Facebook X Share on Twitter LinkedIn Share on LinkedIn WhatsApp Share on WhatsApp Email Share on Email

The defence minister’s resignation reveals the complete collapse of Keir Starmer’s authority, says Eliot Wilson

The resignation of the Defence Secretary, John Healey, last week, with his Armed Forces Minister Al Carns a few hours behind him, was a very serious blow for Sir Keir Starmer. Let us be clear about the significance of this: since the post was created in 1964, only one other Secretary of State for Defence, Michael Heseltine over the Westland affair in 1986, has resigned on a point of principle. However much drama the future ownership of Westland Helicopters generated at the time, Healey has walked out over a central part of the government’s policy stance, the issue of public expenditure on defence.

Healey is a loyal, unshowy, safe pair of hands who has spent 21 of the past 25 years on Labour’s front bench. That made his quiet but cutting resignation letter all the more damning. (Heseltine, by contrast, who went the extra mile and resigned halfway through a Cabinet meeting, was known to be prone to histrionics.) Having seen the financial settlement for the much-delayed Defence Investment Plan on Monday, and knowing that the Ministry of Defence had initially estimated a shortfall of £28bn over the next four years, he found it unacceptable.

The accepted wisdom is that HM Treasury would not agree to........

© City A.M.