Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative Party, has asserted that the resignation of John Healey demonstrates that Keir Starmer's premiership “is falling apart.”
Badenoch's Statement to Reporters
Speaking to reporters, Badenoch 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.”
Political Context
All opposition parties need a simple attack line to use against the government. At the moment, Badenoch is running hard with the line that Labour will not spend money on defence or cut taxes because its MPs just want to spend more on benefits. This makes for compelling rhetoric, and because benefit spending is rising fast in some areas, it has enough truth to make it arguable. However, as an overall explanation for what is happening with spending, it is almost wholly wrong.
