The John Healey resignation has left Sir Keir Starmer facing the gravest threat to his authority since taking office, with senior Labour figures warning the departure of the former defence secretary could prove fatal to a premiership already under severe pressure.
Healey quit on Thursday after Downing Street declined to increase a defence spending settlement he had told the prime minister was far too low. His public statement said No 11 had been ‘unwilling’ to find the money, while No 10 had been ‘unable’ to make it happen.
How the John Healey Resignation Unfolded
On Tuesday morning, Healey told Sir Keir the settlement was insufficient and demanded a fixed date by which the UK would reach a target of spending 3% of national income on defence. Later that day, the Ministry of Defence warned Downing Street of the consequences of such a low figure.
For the following 24 hours, Healey sought to speak directly with the prime minister. The call back did not come until late Wednesday night. Healey warned Sir Keir he would have to resign if nothing changed, saying: ‘As it is, I can’t stand behind this, and I would have to resign.’ His allies say both sides agreed to consider the position overnight. Sir Keir’s camp say the prime minister had made his final position clear.
By mid-morning Thursday, Healey had heard nothing from Downing Street. When he followed up, a member of the Downing Street political team, not the prime minister himself, told him there was ‘no change’. At that point, Healey’s decision was made.
One source close to the talks said the deal had been so difficult to defend that officials were unsure how to present it, telling Laura Kuenssberg: ‘The deal was so bad they didn’t know how to present it.’ As late as Wednesday night, Downing Street was still debating whether to announce the extra defence cash as £15 billion, £13.5 billion or £10 billion.
The Backdrop: A Promise Made Without a Funding Plan
The roots of the dispute lie in commitments made well before Thursday’s events. The Strategic Defence Review, published at the start of June 2025, was drawn up on the expectation that defence spending would rise to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, reaching 3% by 2034 at the latest. At that stage, Healey told the prime minister and the chancellor he would not need to return for more money, a position one source described as a serious miscalculation.
Less than a month later, following pressure from Donald Trump and NATO at a summit in the Hague, Sir Keir committed the UK to spending 3.5% of GDP on defence by 2035. No agreement was reached on where the additional funding would come from. The Treasury, senior sources say, was not prepared to accept that billions more would be required.
A Starmer ally defended the prime minister’s record, saying: ‘No one around the Cabinet table has done more to sort defence spending than Keir. He literally unpicked the spending settlement of every single government department to pay for the boost.’ But the picture that emerges is one of Sir Keir pressing cabinet colleagues to give up portions of their own budgets rather than taking a clean central decision on new funding.
Political Fallout and What Comes Next
One cabinet minister said colleagues would be ‘shaken’ by Healey’s exit. A former Labour minister said flatly: ‘I’m afraid Keir’s stuffed now.’ Another called the resignation ‘the last nail.’ A further former minister predicted there would have to be a U-turn, and that more money would simply have to be found, warning that the new defence secretary, former soldier Dan Jarvis, could not present the existing plan ‘or he’ll be toast.’
Healey’s departure also removes one of the strongest arguments Starmer loyalists had deployed against internal critics questioning his leadership. The prime minister’s handling of security and relations with foreign allies had been cited repeatedly as justification for him staying on. That argument is now substantially weakened.
The fallout is set to continue at the G7 summit in France. Elbridge Colby, a member of Trump’s defence team, has already reshared Healey’s resignation letter online, stating there is a ‘great need for more British military strength in this critical time,’ according to BBC News. A group of MPs visiting Washington DC learned of the resignation just as they were about to enter a meeting at the Pentagon, having been briefed to reassure American contacts of the UK’s commitment to defence spending. One present said: ‘It might have been hilarious if it hadn’t been so awkward.’
Asked directly whether he would lead Labour into the next election, Sir Keir replied: ‘That’s what I want to do. I recognise that I’ve got to turn things around.’ With Andy Burnham expected to return to parliament at the Makerfield by-election within days, the pressure on the prime minister is not easing.
