UK Defence Secretary John resigns

British Defence Secretary John Healey resigned on Thursday, in a surprise move which he said was due to Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the finance ministry failing to commit sufficient resources to defence investment.

“You have been unable, and the Treasury has been unwilling, to commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country at this time of rising threats,” he wrote in a resignation letter to Starmer.

The government has delayed a long-awaited Defence Investment Plan that sets out funding over the next decade, amid reports that funding would fall far short of what had been requested.