Healey Resignation Is "Colossal Failure Of Government", Says Former Labour Defence Secretary
John Healey resigned on Thursday over Starmer's plans for military spending (Alamy)
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A former Labour defence secretary has warned Keir Starmer that his credibility "will be shot" if he doesn't rethink military spending plans in the wake of John Healey's resignation.
In an interview with PoliticsHome, Lord Hutton, who was defence secretary between 2008 and 2009 under former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown, described Healey's resignation on Thursday as a "colossal failure of government" and said that the UK should be "ashamed".
Healey, a major Starmer loyalist, announced his resignation from cabinet earlier today, warning that the government's planned military spending is not enough to keep the country safe. He singled out the Treasury for criticism, saying it was "unwilling" to "commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country at this time of rising threats".
Responding to the news, Hutton said Healey's resignation "represents a colossal failure of government over the last period of time" and that the Starmer administration had "completely failed" to respond to growing global threats to UK security.
The former defence secretary, who was a Labour MP for nearly two decades, said that the reported spending plans would make "the task of his [Healey's] successor extremely difficult", adding that if the government sticks to the current position, the next defence secretary will struggle with a "huge credibility problem". Healey's replacement had not been confirmed at the time of writing.
Hutton told PoliticsHome that the government will need to combine further borrowing with cuts to other departments, including welfare, to fund the necessary increase to defence spending.
"This is all about deterrence. It's about preserving the peace, not putting the peace at risk," he said.
Hutton said he was "utterly frustrated" that the Labour government seemed "to be completely unable to address" the issue, adding that he hoped Healey's resignation "will force a rethink on the part of senior ministers".
"It will have to be rethought," Hutton later added, "otherwise, the government's entire credibility will be shot."
Lord Hutton was defence secretary under Gordon Brown (Alamy)
Hutton warned that he did not believe the UK was currently fulfilling its obligation under Article 3 of NATO, which states that members should be able to “maintain and develop their individual and collective capacity to resist armed attack”.
"I don't think we're discharging that article three obligation right now."
PoliticsHome previously revealed concerns among defence figures, including former ministers, that the UK was not capable of defending itself from attack.
"I just don't think we're meeting our NATO commitment, and we need to be able to hold our head high in the NATO council, and on our current policies, we should be ashamed," Hutton told PoliticsHome.
The government had been expected to publish its long-awaited Defence Investment Plan (DIP) in the coming days after months of delay due to uncertainty about where the funding for such an investment would come from.
The PM and Chancellor Rachel Reeves are under pressure to significantly increase defence spending in response to global threats to the UK. Last year, the Prime Minister pledged to raise military spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2027, with the ambition of increasing that figure to 3 per cent in the next parliament.
In his letter of resignation to Starmer, Healey said the DIP financial settlement, which he was first given in full on Monday afternoon, "falls well short of what is required for defence and the country at this dangerous time".
"The extra support is backloaded when the pressure of operations and imperative to speed up readiness to fight is in the first two years and it rises to just 2.58 per cent of GDP in 2030, when we will reach 2.6 per cent next year with the investment we are already making," implying that Starmer had offered Healey just a 0.08 per cent rise in spending.
