Kier Starmer faces Jarvis reprioritise plan after Healey quits
kier starmer now faces a new defence secretary who is expected to revisit the UK’s defence investment plan after John Healey resigned over how to fund it. Dan Jarvis is expected to look again at the plan and may press the Treasury for more cash.
Healey quit on Thursday after saying he would not accept a settlement that failed to give the armed forces the resources they need. He said Downing Street was offering £13.5bn to plug an £18bn gap in major defence projects.
Jarvis and the Treasury
Multiple government sources said Jarvis would try to reprioritise parts of the defence investment plan. An ally of Jarvis said: “They can’t sack him [Jarvis] or let him resign,” a line that points to the leverage he is expected to use in talks with Starmer and Rachel Reeves.
The dispute is not just about a single figure. The £18bn gap was partly expected to be covered by cutting other departments’ capital budgets by 1%, and some ministers told they would be loth to reopen those settlements again.
Healey’s funding break
Healey’s resignation left the defence investment plan delayed until July. On Sunday, Lisa Nandy said discussions about it were ongoing, even as ministers signalled that some capital projects would be protected from cuts.
Rachel Reeves and Starmer had already asked Healey to look again at the balance of funding when he was in post, particularly to increase spending on autonomous ships and drones. Healey also said he was concerned that Starmer did not appear to be embracing a Nato target of spending 3.5% of GDP by 2035.
Starmer and rising threats
Starmer said in February that Britain “needs to go faster” on defence spending, and he posted on social media overnight after the Royal Marines seized a Russia-linked shadow fleet oil tanker in the Channel: “Another bad day to be Vladimir Putin.”
The immediate issue now is whether Jarvis can redraw the defence investment plan without forcing another round of cuts elsewhere. If he cannot, the same funding fight that ended Healey’s tenure will move straight into the next cabinet negotiation.
