Reshuffles vary in significance. When John Healey was spotted in Downing Street yesterday, there was an obvious question: was Andy Burnham reinstating him as defence secretary? Was this a coded message that Healey had been right on the need to increase defence spending beyond that in the Defence Investment Plan (DIP) and Keir Starmer wrong?
It was more surprising than that. Healey became Chancellor of the Exchequer, a move unanticipated by a commentariat watching a two-horse race between Ed Miliband and Shabana Mahmood. When the bottle stopped spinning later last night, 43-year-old Wes Streeting was the new Defence Secretary. He became Health Secretary in 2024, having shadowed the portfolio for nearly three years, but resigned in May, saying he had no confidence in Starmer’s leadership.
It is worrying that Streeting lacks any kind of grounding in defence
There is nothing in Streeting’s background to suggest any interest in defence or national security. He was elected to the Commons in 2015, and Jeremy Corbyn’s election as Leader of the Labour party that year left Streeting, a Blairite centrist, with little chance of preferment. Instead, he spent nearly five years on the House of Commons Treasury Committee, comfortably the keenest and most able of Labour’s presence.
