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British defence minister John Healey quit Thursday over a months-long dispute about military spending, accusing Prime Minister Keir Starmer of failing to commit the resources needed to keep the country safe from mounting threats.
The resignation, accompanied by a scathing critique of the prime minister, is another sign that Starmer’s authority is draining away. It also exposes a crisis at the heart of the government: how to ramp up defence spending when there is little money to spare and the welfare budget keeps rising.
Healey, a previously loyal minister, had been locked in talks with Starmer and finance minister Rachel Reeves over how to meet the additional military spending needs, delaying Britain’s Defence Investment Plan, which was due last year.
“You have been unable, and the Treasury has been unwilling, to commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country,” Healey said in his letter to Starmer.
Starmer responded with a letter expressing regret at Healey’s resignation and appointed security minister Dan Jarvis as his replacement.
But around the same time as Starmer was making that appointment, junior defence minister Al Carns also quit, saying the spending plans were “not built for the threat we face.”
Increased pressure on Starmer
The unexpected resignations are another blow to Starmer, who is likely to face a challenge to his leadership in the coming months.
Starmer’s health minister, Wes Streeting, resigned last month, accusing the prime minister of lacking a vision. Another potential challenger, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, is attempting to return to front-line politics to launch a leadership bid.
Britain, historically a great military power, was left exposed in March when it was unable to immediately deploy an advanced warship to Cyprus after its air base there was hit by an Iranian-made drone. Already contending with the U.S. pivot away from protecting Europe, Britain is now the third-biggest spender in NATO, having been overtaken by Germany in 2024. The investment plan was aimed at bringing the armed forces to a state of “warfighting readiness.”
Starmer has pledged the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War, aiming to lift it to three per cent of national output in the next parliament, meaning tens of billions of pounds in additional money for defence.
But Healey said the plan he had seen would increase defence spending to only 2.68 per cent in 2030, when it will already reach 2.6 per cent next year.
WATCH | Starmer fighting to keep his job:
Less than two years after leading his Labour Party to a massive victory, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is hugely unpopular and fighting to keep his job. For The National, CBC’s Margaret Evans breaks down what’s behind his political problems.
‘Hammer blow’ to Starmer
One Labour lawmaker said Healey’s resignation was a “hammer blow to Starmer.” Another said it was now inevitable Starmer would be forced out within months, while a third said the departure had taken the Labour defence team completely by surprise.
About a quarter of Starmer’s lawmakers have called for him to step down after his Labour Party suffered the heaviest local election losses in early May for any British prime minister in more than three decades.
Healey’s departure, less than a month before a NATO summit, will not help.
Kevin Craven, the head of Britain’s defence lobby group ADS, said Healey’s resignation was a “damning reflection” of Starmer’s approach.
“The consequences for the U.K., and indeed our allies, of getting our Defence Investment Plan wrong — as now seems certain — are of a magnitude far beyond our worst fears,” he said.
