No British defence secretary has resigned in such an abrasive manner as the quiet man of the Ministry of Defence John Healey, who turned up the volume to pain pitch for a struggling PM.
Healey is no showy figure on the international stage but he is a familiar, trusted face. So, the news he had dramatically quit Keir Starmer’s government in the run-up to a vital summit of Nato leaders trying to keep an unreliable US onside and boost strategic capability ran like wildfire around Alliance capitals. “He hasn’t really gone?” one senior German military figure texted me in disbelief.
Most UK Cabinet upheavals have little effect abroad – the departure of Wes Streeting did not move the news ticker in Washington or Paris. But the UK, while a medium-size contributor to Nato in hard power terms, is a country with fighting experience and world-class integration of its intelligence services and military efforts – a massive boost to Ukraine, especially in the crucial early days of the fighting.
For that reputation to be so badly dented because of a clearly toxic mood between the figure heading the Government’s defence portfolio and a Prime Minister who has talked big and walked small on actual commitments is a huge loss of dignity for the UK. That is a risk he has decided to take – and it is hard to avoid the conclusion that his aim is to prise Starmer out of office as soon as possible.
