In the open letter to Labour leader Keir Starmer, which he "never thought he would write", Healey announces that the resignation is due to disagreements between the two.
"You have been unwilling, and the Treasury has been unwilling, to commit the resources the nation needs to defend the country at a time of increased threats," the letter, which Healey published on X, states.
“I now have no other choice but to submit my resignation,” he continues.
Former army officer
Just hours after Healey's resignation, it was announced that former army officer Dan Jarvis would be his replacement. Jarvis was previously a junior minister at the Home Office.
Al Carns, the junior minister responsible for the UK's armed forces, wrote in his resignation letter that the defence's current investment plan "is not adapted to the threat we face."
Latest in line
John Healey is the latest in a string of British ministers to resign. As recently as May, the country's health minister, Wes Streeting, resigned after he said he had lost confidence in the party leadership and that it would therefore be "dishonest and unprincipled" to remain as a minister. Streeting's defection was widely interpreted as a sign that he plans to challenge Starmer for the leadership of the Labour Party.
Demands for Keir Starmer's resignation have been mounting this spring following the Social Democratic Party's major defeat in regional and local elections - in addition to the crisis of confidence surrounding Starmer's appointment of former cabinet minister Peter Mandelson, who turned out to have connections to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
