John Healey has resigned as Secretary of State for Defence over the government’s failure to properly fund the armed forces as part of its defence investment plan. Below is his letter to the Prime Minister explaining his decision.
This is a letter I never expected to write, and I do so now with great regret and reluctance.
I am proud of what we have done in less than two years as a Labour government. We’ve stepped up to lead internationally for Ukraine with the Coalition of the Willing and Ukraine Defence Contact Group, established Britain as a leading voice for Europe in Nato, raised defence investment to 2.5 per cent of GDP three years earlier than anyone expected, launched the deepest defence reforms in 50 years, won the biggest UK defence export deals for decades, published a first-of-its-kind Strategic Defence Review, gave our Armed Forces the biggest pay rise in nearly 20 years, boosted military morale, fixed over 1,200 of the worst forces family homes, reset relations with European allies and signed major defence agreements with Germany, Norway and France.
I am being forced to make decisions that would reduce the readiness of our Forces and increase the risk to personnel on operations, and could make the country less safe
