John Healey

John Healey has represented a South Yorkshire constituency for Labour since 1997, under three names: Wentworth, Wentworth and Dearne from 2010, and Rawmarsh and Conisbrough from 2024, when he won with a majority of 6,908 over Reform UK. Before Parliament he was a disability rights campaigner and campaigns director at the TUC. On 20 July 2026 he was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, five weeks after resigning as Defence Secretary in a dispute over military funding.

Under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown he was an education minister from 2001, Economic Secretary and then Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 2002 to 2007, local government minister from 2007 and housing minister from June 2009 to May 2010. The Mortgage Rescue Scheme, launched in January 2009 before he took the housing brief, ran under his oversight until the 2010 election. The National Audit Office found in 2011 that it had helped 2,600 households avoid repossession at a cost of over £240 million, against an expected 6,000 households for £205 million, and had not provided value for money.

In opposition he was shadow housing minister in 2010 and shadow health secretary from 2010 to 2011. He returned to housing in 2015, left the front bench in June 2016 and came back as shadow housing secretary that October, publishing Labour's green paper Housing for the Many in April 2018. Keir Starmer made him shadow defence secretary in April 2020.

As Defence Secretary from 5 July 2024 he oversaw the Strategic Defence Review, led by Lord Robertson and published in June 2025. The government accepted all 62 recommendations, including planned spending of £6 billion on munitions in that Parliament, at least six new munitions factories and at least £7 billion for military housing. A Defence Industrial Strategy followed in September 2025. In February 2025 the Prime Minister announced that defence spending would reach 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2027, funded by cutting aid from 0.5 to 0.3 per cent of national income, with an ambition of 3 per cent in the next Parliament; the government later committed to 3.5 per cent by 2035 under a new NATO target. NATO estimated UK defence spending at 2.3 per cent of GDP in 2025, and actual Ministry of Defence spending in 2025/26 was £62.0 billion.

He was joint chair of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group with Germany and announced a £225 million military package in Kyiv in December 2024. The government stated that UK military support for Ukraine in 2025 would total £4.5 billion.

On 15 July 2025 he told the Commons of a February 2022 Ministry of Defence data breach exposing 18,714 Afghan relocation applicants, kept secret under a superinjunction until the High Court lifted it that day. He apologised, closed the Afghanistan Response Route to new offers and put its cost at £400 million. The Defence Committee reported in July 2026 that secrecy had displaced parliamentary scrutiny for nearly two years, that there had been little political decision making on the breach between June and October 2024, and that the National Audit Office could not verify the department's later £850 million estimate. It made no finding against Healey personally.

He resigned on 11 June 2026, writing that the Defence Investment Plan settlement "falls well short of what is required for defence and the country at this dangerous time" and that he was "being forced to make decisions that would reduce the readiness of our Forces". Armed Forces Minister Al Carns also resigned. Al Jazeera reported that the settlement reached 2.68 per cent of GDP by 2030, against the 3 per cent Healey sought. The plan published on 30 June under his successor, Dan Jarvis, set out £298 billion of planned spending from 2026/27 to 2029/30, including £15 billion of additional money, of which £4.7 billion was left to be confirmed at the 2026 Budget.

Andy Burnham became Prime Minister on 20 July 2026 and appointed Healey Chancellor that day. His first announced measure, on 21 July, removed VAT from domestic electricity from 1 October 2026 at an estimated cost of £850 million in 2026/27, funded by cancelling the Digital ID programme. At Labour's September conference he said he and the Prime Minister would meet the fiscal rules but announced no Budget measures. As of 12 October 2026 he had not presented a Budget. His first was scheduled for 28 October, when the £4.7 billion of defence funding left unconfirmed in June was due to be settled.