Defence Secretary John Healey quit the UK government after a months-long spending row with the Treasury came to a head, in a move that dramatically dents Keir Starmer’s authority just as rivals are lining up to challenge for his job.
Healey, seen as a loyal ally of the prime minister, wrote in a resignation letter posted on X that his boss had been “unable, and the Treasury has been unwilling, to commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country at this time of rising threats.”
Healey had been pushing for the Treasury to make up a £28 billion ($37 billion) funding shortfall. But he was rebuffed by Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, who struggled to convince other departments to make the cuts necessary for Starmer to fulfill his key ambition of boosting spending on defense, Bloomberg reported earlier this week.
Healey’s resignation plunges the administration into fresh crisis, with Britain’s embattled premier already clinging on to his job after a mass revolt from his MPs. The prime minister is widely expected to face a leadership challenge from Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, if Burnham triumphs in a parliamentary by-election next week.
“Keir Starmer’s inability to keep the faith of talented loyalists such as John Healey is the clearest indication yet that his days as PM are numbered,” Neal Lawson, director of the center-left Compass think tank, said in an emailed statement. “For the sake of the nation, this Labour government needs a full reset — and that starts at the top.”
Ministers have been locked in fractious discussions over a target to spend 3% of economic output on defense by 2030. Having ruled out further borrowing to fund that, Reeves wanted to reach 3% in 2034/5, Bloomberg reported earlier.
The government now doesn’t know when its plan will be published, according to sources familiar with the matter who asked not to be named discussing internal ructions.
My letter to the Prime Minister pic.twitter.com/j9z9nmLCb1
— John Healey (@JohnHealey_MP) June 11, 2026
The resignation also throws into doubt the UK’s leadership on defense. Healey had been due to helm a key meeting of NATO ministers in Brussels next week on support for Ukraine. The prime minister on Wednesday told the House of Commons that his long-delayed defense investment plan would finally be published ahead of July’s NATO summit.
“We will always do what is right, and needed, to keep the country safe,” Starmer’s office said in a statement. “This country is safer because of the decisions Keir Starmer has made and we will continue to act in our national interest.”
Healey’s resignation is particularly surprising given that he has been one of the most loyal Labour figures for more than three decades, serving as a minister or shadow minister under every leader since Tony Blair. Healey has remained loyal to Starmer even while other ministers and MPs have called in recent weeks on the premier to quit.
In his resignation letter, Healey said the plan provided to him this week would see expenditure rise to just 2.68% in 2030, from a scheduled 2.6% next year. He told Starmer that a 0.08% of GDP increase would not keep the country safe, after his department was offered a £10 billion real-terms cash uplift that fell far short of the funding gap.
Georgia Pickering, managing director at CMS Strategic, said Healey’s resignation marked a moment of “real peril” for the defense sector, and risked a period of fresh uncertainty if the defense investment plan is further delayed.
Read More: UK Treasury Resists Defense Spending Push in 11th-Hour Talks
A Treasury official hit back at Healey, saying his requests amounted to asking for cuts to funding for schools and hospitals.
“No 10 has not been strong enough to actually arbitrate on what is a hard, unavoidable choice,” said James Nation, a former Treasury and No 10 adviser to ex-premier Rishi Sunak, who is now managing director at Forefront Advisors. “It requires difficult choices and the allocation of actual cash from within the government spending envelope, and there’s no way around that.”
Healey had been concerned that Starmer’s office was rushing to publish the investment plan without adequate funding. He told the premier that it “falls well short of what is required for defense and the country at this dangerous time.”
“His resignation today is something to lament, and is truly a damning reflection on the current state of affairs,” said Kevin Craven, chief executive officer of ADS, the UK’s trade body for the aerospace, defense, security and space sectors. “The consequences for the UK, and indeed our allies, of getting our defense investment plan wrong — as now seems certain — are of a magnitude far beyond our worst fears.”