John Healey has resigned as Defence Secretary amid a major row over funding for the Armed Forces, turning a simmering argument over the Defence Investment Plan (DIP) into a full-blown crisis for Keir Starmer’s government.
Starmer has committed to publishing the plan before next month, following months of bitter negotiations between the Ministry of Defence and Rachel Reeves’ Treasury.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, Healey wrote: ‘The excellent and extensive cross-government work that completed in January – overseen by you, me and the Chancellor – confirmed the scale of the challenge and the rising demands on defence.
‘Since then, 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 the DIP financial settlement was first presented to him in full on Monday afternoon and ‘falls well short of what is required’.
He wrote to Starmer: ‘You know what defence needs. You made the argument for this powerfully in your speech at the Munich Security Conference back in February.
‘Without a DIP that meets the moment in this way, I am being forced to make decisions that would reduce the readiness of our Forces and increase the risk to personnel on operations, and could make the country less safe.’
Healey’s departure leaves Starmer without one of his most popular and widely respected ministers. It also turns the heat up considerably on a sore point for the PM, who has been keen to emphasise his government’s commitment to defending the country.
The DIP has been in the works for more than a year, since the Strategic Defence Review was published at the start of June 2025.
