Keir Starmer has been branded a coward as John Healey's resignation as Defence Secretary triggered a wave of criticism, with opponents claiming Britain is prioritising welfare over defence amid global threats from Russia, China, and Iran.
John Healey's resignation as Defence Secretary awoke many from their slumbers, including socialist dinosaur Jeremy Corbyn. The political irrelevance, who for 43 years as an MP has been on the wrong side of history, waded in with this belter: "We do not need to spend more money on bombs and bullets. We need to spend more on housing, schools and our NHS instead. A roof over your head. Enough food to feed your children. A public health service you can rely on in your time of need."
"That is what real security means," Corbyn added. Corbyn, who laughably claimed the cancer of antisemitism within the Labour Party has been dramatically overstated, believes all war could end if we only all hold hands and eat quiche. Thankfully he is nowhere near the levers of power anymore, but his former party is just as dangerous and disingenuous.
While it is true they have plunged Britain into perpetual crisis, economically and socially, there are some competent ministers, or were. Healey was one and his deputy, Al Carns, another. Both could see where stuttering Starmer and his nodding dog Chancellor Rachel Reeves were taking us.
Britain blows 333 billion pounds on welfare as Labour enables the idle. It spends 62.2 billion pounds on defence. The first priority of any government is to keep its people safe. Labour has shown it is happy to throw welfare payments around like confetti, but has short arms and deep pockets when it comes to adequately equipping its Armed Forces.
Corbyn has defended Palestine Action 'terrorists'. This shameful statistic is indefensible at the best of times but coming when the country is at the mercy of rogue states like China, Iran, and Russia it says all you need to know about Labour's priorities. Just like Corbyn, Starmer and Reeves have prioritised benefits over bullets. The timing is a kick in the teeth to all who can see just how pathetically impotent Britain is.
While Corbyn continues to wring his hands over the sentencing of four Palestine Action activists as terrorists, calling it a "historic miscarriage of justice", Carns has a more mature and sobering take. He said: "Every war now shows up on your energy bill. Defence isn't separate from the economy any more. It is the economy. And the countries that invest in it get to write the rules. Everyone else lives by them. We need to get out of this mindset that wars are won by soldiers alone. They're won by supply chains, factories and the country behind them. Britain spent a decade choosing to be smaller in the world. Right now the rules on communications, energy and trade are being rewritten. By China. By Russia. By countries that take their own security seriously. We need to be at that table. That's a choice we must make. Strong countries get cheap energy. Weak countries pay whatever the strong ones decide."
Healey knew what was coming. The pain etched on his face at commemorations to mark the 82nd anniversary of the D-Day landings a little over a week ago said it all. On the same ground where 22,540 soldiers sacrificed their lives in the defence of freedom in 1944 he sat listening to General Lord Dannatt, former Chief of the General Staff, talk about the critical need to bolster defence spending and beef up security and was clearly embarrassed. He knew what was coming. He knew the treacherous government he represented was betraying those who served before and those who serve now. It was to be his last major appearance.
We have heard the last surviving men from the Normandy landings say how the sacrifice of the men who fell saving Europe from the evils of Nazi oppression was hardly worth the sacrifice when they see the feckless rewarded as the Army, Navy, and Royal Air Force make do and mend. Healey and Carns, a former Royal Marine, agreed. They are men of principle and honour, and so quit. They know, as do those in our hollowed out Armed Forces, the mad ayatollahs of Tehran, the bloodthirsty despot in the Kremlin, and the clandestine Chinese do not yield to warm words or cuddles. They must be howling with laughter at the chaos that continues under our impotent PM.
Meanwhile, Starmer, a man who lives in a state of constant catastrophe, refuses to budge steadfast in the belief that if he sticks his fingers in his ears reality will disappear. And so he aimlessly waffles on. And speaking of waffles, General Sir Nick Carter, former Chief of the Defence Staff, said Britain risks becoming "Belgium with nuclear weapons" unless it addresses the crisis. Healey and Carns had the decency to resign. Starmer has refused but his day of reckoning is fast approaching.
