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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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.
Appearances
Oh, you'd warned him.
Of course, of course.
The really detailed work, all the financial figures, the trade-off options, the challenges, were worked out with some excellent cross-government work during the late autumn.
It reported jointly to Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves, and myself.
So by December-January, reinforced by 40 hours of a deep dive led by the Cabinet Secretary.
we knew what the challenges were, we knew what the financial options were.
It then became a matter for number ten and number eleven, number ten and the Treasury to work out the funding to support the Defence Investment Plan and we waited weeks, we waited months.
And Keir Starmer knew what defence needed.
He knew what the country needed.
He made that really important speech in Munich at big security conference in February where he wasn't just talking about the funding for the defence investment plan.
He made the argument, uh, without making the announcement for three percent of GDP funding on defence as part of the commitment that he had made on behalf of the country quite rightly, as part of also NATO's commitments to each other.
Yeah, that's that needs to be target for the
That's the NATO d uh commitment of three point five percent of spending on GDP by twenty thirty five.
And then an extra one point five on on resilience and wider national security, which a lot of people overlook, but is essential to making us more resilient.
Why didn't he find the money?
The Treasury said no in the end.
You have some of the very best and brightest officials in the Treasury, but you have a too often Treasury Orthodox that's a dead hand on dynamic government.
And an ex uh parliamentary bad carrier for Gordon Brown when he was Chancellor.
Indeed, I was a Treasury Minister for five years, and I know what the Treasury's r uh essential responsibility is on fiscal and monetary policy, low inflation, financial stability.
But also it can and it has to drive economic growth, raise levels of productivity, support business competition, investment for the future.
Showing 21–40 of 228 · page 2 of 12
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