John Healey: Labour veteran who resigned as defence secretary

The appointment of John Healey as chancellor of the exchequer by Andy Burnham caught Westminster completely off guard — a rarity in British politics. Few had tipped the 66-year-old for the role, with speculation about Rachel Reeves's successor focused on more prominent figures. Since his dramatic exit as Sir Keir Starmer's defence secretary in June, Healey had kept a low profile.

A Resignation That Shook Downing Street

His verdict on the government's defence investment plan — that it fell "well short of what is required for defence and the country at this dangerous time" — was scathing and unquestionably accelerated Sir Keir's exit from Number 10. His resignation letter also took direct aim at Reeves's Treasury, which he described as "unwilling" to "commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country at this time of rising threats". Now Healey occupies the Treasury's top post, facing demands to explain how he will lift defence spending to 3% of national income while simultaneously reducing government borrowing costs and addressing the cost of living. Like Reeves before him, he must balance keeping Labour MPs satisfied without alarming financial markets, all while advancing the government's core priorities.

A Low-Key Style With Fiscal Focus

Never among the flashiest politicians, Healey's early speeches as chancellor have emphasised his dedication to fiscal discipline and welfare bill reductions, alongside championing Burnham's ambition to "reindustrialise" Britain. He has nonetheless shown a more playful side, appearing in a social media video with the prime minister in which "Andy and John" joked about twiglets and scampi fries in the pub. "I will always stand by my political choices as chancellor, including pork scratchings as the best pub snack," he revealed on X. The softly-spoken Yorkshireman has an extraordinary record of near-continuous service on the Labour frontbench since 2001. Born in Wakefield in 1960, he attended Lady Lumley's Comprehensive School in Pickering and Peter's School in York, before studying social and political science at Christ's College, Cambridge. Before politics, he worked as a journalist — briefly editing Parliament's in-house magazine The House — then became a disability rights campaigner and trade union official. He entered Parliament in Tony Blair's 1997 landslide as MP for Wentworth, a former mining area north of Sheffield, now Rawmarsh and Conisbrough after boundary changes. He held the seat in the 2024 general election with a majority of 6,908, with a Reform UK candidate finishing second. In the early 2000s he served in a series of ministerial roles, including housing and local government under Blair and Gordon Brown. He spent five years at Brown's Treasury, overseeing policies such as child trust funds and efforts to regenerate and devolve power through Regional Development Agencies, later abolished by the coalition government.

Defence, Housing and Plain Speaking

Speaking to the BBC's Political Thinking with Nick Robinson earlier this month, Healey said: "The Treasury's a paradox. You have some of the very best and brightest officials in the Treasury, but you have too often a Treasury orthodox that's a dead hand on dynamic government." He added that maintaining financial stability was a key function of the Treasury but "also it can and it has to drive economic growth, raise levels of productivity, support business competition, investment for the for the future". He claimed the department "was in denial about the commitment that the UK has rightly made to NATO and to our people" to raise defence spending to 3% of GDP, which under current plans would not happen until 2034/35. "The Treasury still often sees defence as a drain on public spending and not the driver of economic growth that we've demonstrated in two years," he told Nick Robinson. Housing is another area of expertise. Healey served as shadow housing secretary under Jeremy Corbyn, despite backing a failed attempt to remove Corbyn in 2016. When Sir Keir became Labour leader in 2020, he appointed Healey shadow defence secretary, a role he took into government four years later. A firm supporter of Ukraine in its war with Russia, Healey travelled to the country several times to meet President Zelensky. At his first meeting with Nato allies in September 2024, he said he was "confident" Labour could honour a commitment to increase defence spending and "make the decisions that allow us to set out a long-term plan to make our forces better equipped to fight and to deter the threats we face". He also pushed investment in housing for armed forces families, with a £9bn spending plan. Despite his understated manner, Healey has proven willing to issue blunt warnings to Britain's adversaries. In April this year, in a briefing on "covert" operations by Russian submarines, he delivered a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin: "We see you. "We see your activity over our cables and our pipelines, and you should know that any attempt to damage them will not be tolerated and will have serious consequences." After the defence investment plan was announced, he condemned what he termed "Treasury trickery" and the absence of clarity on what new funding the Ministry of Defence would receive. Healey also made clear he wanted a definite plan to raise UK defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2030. He is not expected to achieve that in his first Budget, with key spending decisions due to be revealed next year.