British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is vowing to fight for his position after the sudden resignation of the defense secretary.
Select breaking news story 2 of 3Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves 10 Downing Street to attend the weekly session of Prime Minister's Questions in parliament in London, Wednesday, June 10, 2026.
FILE - Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer, left, looks on as Defence Secretary John Healey speaks to apprentices and representatives in the defence industry, during a careers fair inside 10 Downing Street in central London, Monday March 3, 2025. A television camera looks down Downing Street, as media wait in the street, following the resignation of two Defense ministers over funding of the British armed forces, in London, Friday, June 12, 2026.
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves 10 Downing Street to attend the weekly session of Prime Minister's Questions in parliament in London, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. But the sudden resignation of Defense Secretary John Healey is a heavy blow. Healey quit Thursday, warning that the government is not spending enough on the military to keep Britain safe “at this time of rising threats.
” His departure hits Starmer in the one place the often embattled prime minister has won consistent praise: the world stage. France and the U.K. also have put together a maritime security force that would help keep the Strait of Hormuz open to shipping if the Iran war ends.
Starmer has also argued strongly that European nations must do more to fund their own defense in response to President“Starmer has been consistently staunch about warning of the security risk from Russia,” said Olivia O’Sullivan, head of the U.K. in the World program at the Chatham House think tank.
“He’s been given quite a bit of credit by the public for having to deal with Trump and doing so with a level of steadiness and calm. And he has been, in line with previous U.K. governments, a close and consistent ally of Ukraine. ”At issue is the government’s long-awaited Defense Investment Plan, a road map for how the U.K. will increase military spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2035.
The U.K. military is also seeking to reverse years of decline in the face of an increasingly assertive Russia, which invaded its neighbor Ukraine in 2022 and increasingly tests the defenses of European nations with overt and covert activity. Healey says defense spending must reach 3% of GDP by 2030. He quit in frustration after Treasury chief Rachel Reeves refused to budge on a plan that falls short of that.
He cited a British intelligence assessment that Russia could attack a NATO member country as soon as 2030 and said a lower-than-needed spending plan “could make the country less safe. ” Critics argue that military spending can be a bottomless pit, and point out that procurement projects regularly run over time and over budget.
Former Armed Forces Minister Al Carns, who quit on Thursday a few hours after Healey, said it is not just a question of spending more money, but spending it wisely. He said the investment plan was not “transformative enough. ” “I want to see a higher percentage for uncrewed systems, AI, data — data is the new gunpowder — and we’ve got to move that forward if we are going to win the next war,” he told the BBC.
Healey is not the first government minister to resign. Last month Starmer lost several junior ministers and then Health Secretaryis widely expected to challenge Starmer for the leadership if he is elected to Parliament in a special election on Thursday. But the departure of Healey, long seen as a loyal minister without personal leadership ambitions, “suggests that Starmer’s credibility, even with his inner circle of ministers, is perhaps draining away,” O’Sullivan said.
He told the BBC that defense is “my number one priority. And I have taken the difficult decisions to make sure that we are safe as a country. ” “I’m not going to go away. I don’t think we should plunge the country into the chaos of a leadership election,” he said.
“I don’t think it should happen, but if it does, then I will fight. ”Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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