By Sarah Young, Andrew MacAskill and Muvija M
LONDON, June 11 (Reuters) - British defence minister John Healey quit on Thursday in a dispute over military spending, accusing Prime Minister Keir Starmer of failing to commit the resources that are needed to keep the country safe from heightened threats.
The unexpected resignation, accompanied by a scathing public letter, compounds the pressure on Starmer when he is facing a likely leadership challenge and exposes the crisis at the heart of the British government - how it can ramp up defence spending when there is little money to spare and the welfare budget keeps rising.
Healey had been locked in talks with Starmer and finance minister Rachel Reeves for months over how to meet the additional military spending needed, delaying Britain’s Defence Investment Plan, which was due last year.
“You have 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 said in his letter to Starmer.
RESIGNATION TURNS UP THE HEAT ON STARMER
Healey’s high-profile resignation comes as Starmer struggles to hold onto power, after Wes Streeting resigned as health minister in May and as another challenger, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, attempts to return to frontline politics to launch a leadership bid.
A government source said Starmer had cut spending in other government departments and would deliver a spending plan that would guarantee the capability the armed forces need.
Britain, historically a great military power, was left exposed in March when it was unable to immediately deploy an advanced warship to Cyprus after its air base there was hit by an Iranian-made drone.
Already contending with the U.S. pivot away from protecting Europe, Britain is now the third biggest spender in NATO, having been overtaken by Germany in 2024, and the investment plan was aimed at bringing the armed forces to a state of “warfighting readiness”.
Starmer has pledged the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War, aiming to lift it to 3% of national output in the next parliament. But Healey said the plan he had seen would increase defence spending to only 2.68% in 2030, when it will already reach 2.6% next year.
That compares to Germany’s budget projection that it will spend 3.7% of its GDP on defence by 2030. France is set to be lower than Britain at 2.5%.
Healey said Starmer’s proposed increase in funding for defence fell “well short” of what was needed to help the military meet increased threats from Russia as well as demands to increase its presence in the Arctic and the Middle East.
The government has struggled to find the extra cash at a time when the economy is stagnating and both debt and the overall tax burden are at or close to their highest level in decades.
HEALEY WAS WIDELY LIKED
Healey, who had previously served in the governments of former prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, was widely liked by colleagues and the defence sector.
One Labour lawmaker said the resignation was a “hammer blow to Starmer”. Another said it was now inevitable Starmer would be forced out of his job within months. A third said it had taken the Labour defence team completely by surprise.
About a quarter of Starmer’s lawmakers have called for him to step down after his Labour Party in early May suffered the heaviest losses for any British prime minister in local elections in more than three decades.
Healey’s departure, less than a month before a NATO summit, will not help.
Kevin Craven, the head of Britain’s defence lobby group ADS, said Healey’s resignation was a “damning reflection” of Starmer’s approach.
“The consequences for the UK, and indeed our allies, of getting our Defence Investment Plan wrong - as now seems certain - are of a magnitude far beyond our worst fears,” he said.
Kevin Rowlands, from the Royal United Services Institute defence think tank, said Britain’s defence industry had hit a decisive moment.
“If the delay to the Defence Investment Plan was already undermining the government’s credibility on defence, John Healey’s resignation has blown a hole in its side,” he said.
Starmer has previously said the plan was due to be published before a NATO summit beginning on July 7.
(Reporting by Muvija M and Sarah Young, Andrew MacAskill, and Alistair Smout, additional reporting by Sam Tabahriti, William James and Suban Abdulla, Editing by Kate Holton)
