Keir Starmer has broken his silence hours after the resignation of Defence Secretary John Healey MP. The embattled Prime Minister, who has now faced multiple resignations from his government and growing demands for him to step down, insisted he was rebuilding the country.
He was responding to Mr Healey's resignation, in which he criticised the Prime Minister for being unable to "commit the resources that the nation needs" to defend itself. Mr Healey became the latest minister to step down, following former health secretary Wes Streeting weeks prior.
A defiant Sir Keir insisted that the long-delayed defence investment plan (Dip), which was expected before Christmas last year, would "provide the resources our military needs to keep us safe." In a letter to Mr Healey, he added that his government would increase spending on defence in a "sustainable" way, saying that "irresponsible borrowing" would put the country's finances at risk. Sir Keir wrote: "I will always do what is needed to keep our country safe."
While the Government has committed to spending 3.5% of GDP on defence by 2035, Mr Healey said in his resignation letter that the plan he was presented with would see defence spending rising to just 2.68% in 2030 after hitting 2.6% next year. He wrote that without a Dip that "meets the moment," he was "forced to make decisions that would reduce the readiness of our forces and increase the risk to personnel on operations, and could make our country less safe."
Sources said the Government had wanted to publish the Dip today, but with a £13.5 billion uplift that military chiefs warned is not enough. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said the PM's "premiership is falling apart" following Mr Healey's departure. She said: "His health secretary resigned two weeks ago. His defence secretary has resigned at a critical time when we are facing global threats, and he is doing so because the Prime Minister is trying to please his backbenchers by putting money into welfare instead of defence. We need to start funding defence. We need to get to 3% of GDP by the end of this Parliament. Keir Starmer has no plan whatsoever. I don't see how he can stay in this job. He can't run the country. He is paralysed because his backbenchers only want to spend money on welfare."
