After a week of government paralysis, it appears something has finally broken the deadlock: John Healey has resigned as Defence Secretary. In a withering letter to Keir Starmer, Healey accused the Prime Minister of being ‘unable’ and the Treasury ‘unwilling to commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country at this time of rising threats’. The Defence Investment Plan (DIP), he said, ‘falls well short’ of what Britain’s defences need.
In his letter, Healey revealed that he was first given sight of the final DIP settlement on Monday, which revealed that support would be backloaded and rise to just 2.68 per cent of GDP in 2030. This falls well short of the 3 per cent by 2030 that Healey has been pushing Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves to commit to.
Healey’s resignation is the culmination of a three-way stand-off between the Treasury, No. 10 and the MoD. This has been the reason for the DIP’s delay since the autumn when it was originally meant to be published. The Defence Secretary’s resignation letter exposes the degree of animosity that has grown between him and his colleagues.
It is an unforced error on Starmer’s part that he now finds himself in a race against the clock
