Starmer Loses His Defence Secretary: What Next?

**Alastair Campbell** (0:00)
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**Alastair Campbell** (2:57)
Welcome to a live episode of The Rest Is Politics with me, Alastair Campbell.

**Rory Stewart** (3:01)
And with me, Rory Stewart.

**Alastair Campbell** (3:03)
And why are we doing a live episode today, just ahead of the kickoff of the World Cup? Because out of the blue, breaking news, Defence Secretary John Healey resigned from the cabinet. Worse for Keir Starmer, he did so at a time when the Prime Minister is facing a possible leadership challenge in the coming weeks or months. With the likeliest challenger, Andy Burnham exactly one week away now from the by-election that may see his return to parliament.
Perhaps most devastating of all, John Healey makes clear in his resignation letter that leadership is the issue. This line which I suspect hit Keir Starmer quite hard. You have been unable, writes John Healey, and the Treasury has been unwilling to commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country.
He's got Rachel Reeves as well as Keir Starmer in his sights, and he's going down fighting, I guess. The issue is defense spending. More particularly what's known as the Defense Investment Plan, which he thought had been broadly agreed some time ago, which has been sitting on the prime minister's desk amid some very, very tough negotiations. So we've got a few immediate questions who replaces him. When does the Defense Investment Plan get published? And Lindsay Hoyle, the parliamentary speaker, exploded today at the idea it might be tomorrow when most MPs are away. And I guess it also begs the question, where does this leave Keir Starmer on the authority front? So Rory, where would you like to start with what is quite big news?

**Rory Stewart** (4:33)
I really want to get into the politics of this with you, and it's something that you'll know much more about than me. And one of the things we were talking about just before we came up on air is, might John Healey be thinking about himself as a future prime minister? Could he be positioning himself for the leadership?