Is John Healey’s resignation a fatal blow for Keir Starmer?
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What prompted John Healey's unexpected resignation?
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The most withering, excoriating resignation letter that you can imagine. That is a laser-guided missile that he has fired straight at Downing Street and it's hit its target. John Healey has no ambitions to be the Prime Minister. He wanted to put the British Armed Forces on a solid footing with European Armed Forces. So when someone like him goes, you just think, oh my God, it must be rotten at the core.
The whole timetable has massively expedited now. I mean, literally, I think it's like watching everything happen on fast forward.
This day might be seen as the moment where it all collapsed on Keir Starmer.
UK Defence Minister John Healey has resigned from his position. This is just reaching us news from Westminster. The UK Defence Minister John Healey has resigned. Let's go to Deborah Haynes. and speak to our correspondents about this developing story of defence and security. Editor, Deborah, the first thing that comes to mind is the defence investment plan, but what do you know?
I mean, he's actually published, posted a letter on social media, his resignation letter. And I think that is really what we should read. His own words, obviously an absolutely extraordinary development.
This has come out of the blue. The resignation of the Defence Secretary, John Healey, and the most withering, excoriating resignation letter that you can imagine. Accusing Keir Starmer of having been unable and the Treasury unwilling... to commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country.
He accuses Keir Starmer of offering money that falls well short of what is required to keep the country safe. What does this mean for Starmer's future and for the country as a whole? Welcome to The News Agents.
The News Agents.
It's John. It's Maitlis. And this letter is quite something. And you think of the resignation letters that there have been down the ages and the decisive effects that they have had. And I suppose the one you'd compare this to is Geoffrey Howe's resignation that led to the fall of Thatcher, because it seemed such a kind of unlikely voice before. That would be expressing such displeasure. And here we have John Healey, as you say, this loyal, dependable figure who was seen as the absolute safe pair of hands in the cabinet, who kind of rose above party divisions and ideology and was just getting on with the job of the defence of the nation to write such a letter about the failure. of the government to come to grips with this defence investment plan.
So last year we had a strategic defence review that George Robertson led and presented about what the government needed to do. And this was going to be, well, OK, this is how we're going to pay for it and where the money is going to come from and how we're going to invest in the defence of the nation. And this has been waited for and waited for and waited for. And in his letter, John Healy sets out how, it has just gone on and on without any conclusion and that when the conclusion was apparently getting near John Healey felt hang on Keir you're pulling a fast one on me and so John Healey has left the government in what seems to me to be an enormous blow to Starmer when there was so little chance of him surviving anyway
Yeah, there is a very good chance that we will look back on today, the 11th of June, and say, was that the moment that it really ended for Keir Starmer? Clearly, there has been a lot happening up to this point. We have an absolutely critical by-election next Thursday. But to have your own Defence Secretary, a man who has been absolutely loyal and at your side for the last two years of government, turning round and saying... this is on you, I think is almost impossible to bounce back from.
How does Healey's resignation impact Keir Starmer's leadership?
John Healey, I have been told, said to the Prime Minister that 0.08%... of a GDP increase to defence would not keep the country safe. And he got the full offer on Monday afternoon. I'm told that Number 10 had tried to rush and publish this defence plan on Thursday. Healy said, look, if we rush this through, the plan is too risky.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What prompted John Healey's unexpected resignation?
0:02–4:22
2
How does Healey's resignation impact Keir Starmer's leadership?
4:22–8:00
3
What criticisms did Healey make about the government's defense spending?
8:00–17:34
4
What are the implications of Healey's resignation for the Makerfield by-election?
17:34–20:03
5
What does Healey's departure reveal about the state of the Labour Party?
20:03–33:50
6
How has the political landscape changed following Healey's resignation?
33:50–33:54