John Healey
speaker
228 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2026
last heard 6 Jul
John Healey’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Um a mix of the same um
I guess agony and certainty.
It was the very last thing I wanted to do, the very last thing I expected to do.
Keir and I had been alongside each other actually for four years, when he rang me that first weekend, he became Labour leader.
He said, John, we need to establish Labour credibility on defence.
I want you to do defence.
And at that time we were uh less trusted on defence and security than we were on managing the economy and public finances.
Those of us that had worked through the twenty nineteen election remember the hardest doors to knock were those with Help for Heroes stickers in the window and
He knows like I know that if you don't meet those basic tests of public confidence on defense and security and on the economy, you don't get to talk about schools or health or environment or transport.
So that's why you call it agony, is it?
Because you had been a very strong.
The first duty of government, any government, and the test of any wannabe government, is can people have the confidence in you as a party of the armed forces and a party of defence?
So why the certainty that you were right to resign?
The certainty was recognizing that we faced rising demands on defence, growing threats, uh increasing commitments we were rightly making for Britain to lead allies.
And in those circumstances the funding proposed by the Treasury and by Dumberten to support the defence investment plan just fell well short.
And I knew I had to take a stand.
I could not
Stand behind that funding to support what is basically a sound plan that was many months in the making.
Yeah.
Did.
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