John Healey has been appointed as Andy Burnham’s new chancellor, just over a month after dramatically quitting as defence secretary amid an argument about defence funding.
Mr Healey, a stalwart of Labour’s front bench, had held the defence brief since Sir Keir Starmer won the party leadership in 2020, first in the shadow cabinet, then retaining the job after Labour’s 2024 general election landslide.
His shock resignation in early June came amid a row over defence spending. Mr Healey did not believe the defence investment plan (Dip) provided enough cash to prepare the armed forces for the future.
Member of Parliament for Wentworth since Labour’s landslide 1997 general election victory, Mr Healey will bring a wealth of parliamentary experience to Mr Burnham’s top team.
His most senior role as defence secretary lasted from July 2024 to June 2026, but he had held several ministerial positions both in the cabinet and shadow cabinet before this.
Following Labour’s election defeat in 2010, the veteran politician was briefly shadow health secretary before resigning from the position to spend more time with his family.
Mr Healey would rejoin in 2015, appointed shadow housing minister by then-leader Jeremy Corbyn, and later shadow housing secretary. Sir Keir appointed Mr Healey as shadow defence secretary after his successful leadership bid in 2020, a role he would take into government.
In the defence brief, the Yorkshire MP was tasked with shaping Labour’s national security images, especially in light of mounting pressure from Nato allies and the US. He pledged “ironclad” support to Ukraine in the role, meeting president Volodymyr Zelensky shortly after his appointment
Listing his achievements in his resigning letter to Sir Keir, Mr Healey noted an increase in defence investment to 2.5 per cent of GDP, the “deepest defence reforms in 50 years”, a strategic review and record Armed Forces pay rise.
However, he added that the prime minister and Treasury had been “unwilling” to commit the resources necessary to defence investment, citing conflict in the Middle East, increased Russian activity in Ukraine, and a Nato commitment to boost spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP by 2035.
His decision came at an incredibly bruising time for Sir Keir, who had already faced calls from several resigning ministers to go over Labour’s disastrous local election results – most notably former health minister Wes Streeting.
Mr Healey and Mr Burnham share a long professional history dating back to their days as cabinet colleagues under Gordon Brown in the late 2000s. He is thought to have been picked by the former Manchester mayor for his national security credibility and popularity amongst MPs on Labour’s right.
He has returned to Government to run the department he publicly clashed with.
Sources within Mr Burnham’s new Government billed Mr Healey as an experienced and trusted figure who shares the same outlook as the new PM, and is respected on the international stage.
He is described by one ally as “one of the most loyal Labour men for over 30 years”.
Mr Healey has represented a South Yorkshire constituency since entering Parliament in 1997.
The seat, a former mining area to the north of Sheffield, became Rawmarsh and Conisbrough with boundary changes at the most recent general election.
Born in Wakefield in 1960, Mr Healey was educated at Lady Lumley’s Comprehensive School in Pickering and Peter’s School in York, before studying social and political science at Christ’s College, Cambridge.
Before becoming an MP, he campaigned for disability rights in the voluntary sector for several organisations including mental health charity Mind.
After a few years as a PR man, he joined the trade union world, working in communications for the Manufacturing, Science and Finance union and then as campaigns director for the TUC.
Mr Healey is married with one son.
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