Is this the moment it all collapsed for Keir Starmer?
Defence secretary John Healey has resigned. Long seen as one of Keir Starmer’s most loyal members of cabinet, he leaves us, once again, asking how long can the PM stay in the job?
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What’s the story?
Man down. Another member of Keir Starmer's cabinet is gone.
Defence secretary John Healey today announced his resignation, accusing the Labour prime minister of being "unwilling to commit the resources" needed to keep the UK safe from foreign threats.
Amid increasing leadership threats to Starmer, Healey signed off his resignation letter saying he wishes the PM "continuing strength in the exceptional challenges" he faces.
Healey's resignation is due to the government offering far less than the £18 billion he needed to maintain and improve the UK's defence structures.
“This day might be seen as the moment where it all collapsed on Keir Starmer,” says Jon Sopel.
He describes Healey as being a “safe pair of hands” in government, a man who got on with the job and rose above party divisions and ideology.
“This seems to me to be an enormous blow to Starmer, when there was so little chance of him surviving anyway,” Jon adds.
Why Healey, why now?
But is there more to Healey’s resignation than simply defence budgets?
“I think his resignation really has shocked his colleagues, but there is a chance that he would not have been long in that job anyway,” says Emily.
“If Andy Burnham wins the Makerfield by-election, everything's up in the air.”
She says she doesn’t believe he is playing political games in the hope of finding a new spot in a possible Burnham government, but may be making a “shot across the bough” of Starmer’s leadership.
“Perhaps he thinks to be part of the solution, not the problem, he has to get himself away from this and say, 'I understand it isn't working’,” Emily says.
“John Healey has said it out loud, he's written it all down, and he's the ultimate whistleblower.
“He's been in the middle of this, it's not working, and he doesn't like the trickery.”
Jon believes his resignation is simply “born out of frustration.”
“What I've heard from so many government ministers now saying that Starmer just can't take a decision,” he says.
“Starmer reads briefing papers, but doesn't talk to anyone, and I think that this is just political ineptitude on a grand scale.”
Why Healey’s resignation is the worst yet for Starmer
Healey follows the likes of Wes Streeting and Jess Phillips from the front bench to have quit their government roles in the past few months.
But the resignation of this loyal, “mild-mannered” minister will hit the Prime Minister the hardest, The News Agents say.
“The position that Healy has taken, came out of the blue today, but in a way echoes so much of the conversation the cabinet has been having over the last few weeks and months,” says Emily Maitlis.
When Jess Phillips resigned, she used the term “incrementalism” to describe Starmer’s lack of progress in keeping children safer online.
Wes Streeting, speaking to The News Agents after his recent resignation, said the government’s defence spending plan had not been published due to “indecision” and “business-as-usual disagreements” between departments.
Jon believes Healey’s unexpected departure is by far the most damaging to Starmer, describing his departure as “toxic, radioactive and utterly dangerous” for the PM.
“We know that Wes Streeting is ambitious, that he wants to be the Prime Minister, that he's got his own game to play,” he says.
“John Healey has no ambitions to be the Prime Minister, he has the ambitions to be the defence secretary, and do a good job at a difficult time when the whole relationships of Western security are up for grabs.”
Also up for grabs, as seems increasingly likely, is the role of Prime Minister. But would anything change if Andy Burnham’s plan to take Makerfield, then Downing Street plays out?
“One thing we know, if Andy Burnham becomes the prime minister, the problems are the same,” says Jon.
“The problems are the size of the cake, how you divvy it up, how you grow the economy, what growth looks like, and what to do about tax and spending.
“He may be able to communicate it much better, but those problems do not go away just because Andy Burnham comes in as Prime Minister.”