John Healey resigned as defence secretary on Thursday, accusing Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the Treasury of failing to provide adequate funding for the UK’s long-term military spending plan.
In a resignation letter reported by BBC News, Healey said the financial settlement he received for the Defence Investment Plan (DIP) “falls well short of what is required for defence and the country at this dangerous time.” He told Starmer that the prime minister had been “unable” and the Treasury “unwilling” to “commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country at this time of rising threats.”
The DIP is a decade-long plan that explains how new equipment and defence infrastructure will be funded, following a review of military capabilities last year. It was first expected to be published in autumn 2025, but its release has been repeatedly delayed. Unions and defence firms have warned that continued uncertainty over the blueprint threatens British jobs, skills, and national security.
Healey said that demands on defence had increased significantly since January, citing the conflict in the Middle East and new UK commitments in the Arctic and Ukraine. He told the prime minister he had received the DIP financial settlement on Monday but expressed concern that extra support was “backloaded when the pressure of operations and imperative to speed up readiness to fight is in the first two years.”
The resignation is the latest departure from Starmer’s government, which has faced multiple ministerial resignations since May. In mid-May, the health secretary resigned and called on Starmer to step aside, triggering a formal Labour leadership challenge. The prime minister has been under sustained pressure from within his own party after heavy losses in local elections.
The defence portfolio is now vacant at a time when the UK faces heightened security demands across Europe, the Middle East, and the Arctic, and as NATO allies continue to press for increased defence spending commitments.