As Defence Secretary John Healey resigns, who is his wife, do they have children, what has he said?

John Healey, who has served as Secretary of State for Defence since July 2024, has resigned from his position. In his letter to Sir Keir Starmer, John Healey criticised the Prime Minister’s unwillingness to commit enough resources to defence.

John Healey wrote: “Dear Keir,

“This is a letter I never expected to write, and I do so now with great regret and reluctance.

“I am proud of what we have done in less than two years as a Labour Government. We've stepped up to lead internationally for Ukraine with the Coalition of the Willing and Ukraine Defence Contact Group, established Britain as a leading voice for Europe in NATO, raised defence investment to 2.5% of GDP three years earlier than anyone expected, launched the deepest defence reforms in 50 years, won the biggest UK defence export deals for decades, published a first-of-its-kind Strategic Defence Review, gave our Armed Forces the biggest pay rise in nearly 20 years, boosted military morale, fixed over 1,200 of the worst forces family homes, reset relations with European allies and signed major defence agreements with Germany, Norway and France.

“You have led this as PM, earning wide respect at home and abroad. Like me, I know you are exceptionally proud of our Forces and all of those who work in UK Defence.

“We came into government, recognising Britain faced a new era of threat which demanded a new era for defence. The SDR (Strategic Defence Review) we jointly commissioned set the 10-year vision to transform our Armed Forces, strengthen alliances, invest in the technology that is changing warfare and back British industry to make defence an engine for growth.”

John Healey also went on to say that “As I've outlined to you, there are credible ways of meeting the mid-term funding challenges, working multi-nationally and as other European nations are doing, to allow us to protect our ability to deliver the missions of our Labour Government.

However, your DIP financial settlement - which I was first given in full on Monday afternoon this week-falls well short of what is required for defence and the country at this dangerous time. The extra support is backloaded when the pressure of operations and imperative to speed up readiness to fight is in the first two years and it rises to just 2.68% of GDP in 2030, when we will reach 2.6% next year with the investment we are already making.

You spelled out the threats last week: "it is our intelligence assessment, and the assessment of other countries in NATO, that there could be an attack by Russia on NATO as soon as 2030."

John Healey also said: “You know what defence needs. You made the argument for this powerfully in your speech at the Munich Security Conference back in February. Without a DIP that meets the moment in this way, I am being forced to make decisions that would reduce the readiness of our Forces and increase the risk to personnel on operations, and could make the country less safe.

“After explaining to you that I would not be able to accept a DIP settlement that does not give our Forces the resources they need, I am now left with no other option than to submit my resignation as your Defence Secretary.

“I wish you all continuing strength in the exceptional challenges you face as Prime Minister.

“As always, our Labour Government will continue to have my fullest support.”

Following John Healey resignation, Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, said regarding Sir Keir Starmer that “His health secretary resigned two weeks ago. His defence secretary has resigned at a critical time when we are facing global threats, and he is doing so because the Prime Minister is trying to please his backbenchers by putting money into welfare instead of defence.

“We need to start funding defence. We need to get to 3% of GDP by the end of this Parliament…

“Keir Starmer has no plan whatsoever. I don’t see how he can stay in this job. He can’t run the country. He is paralysed because his backbenchers only want to spend money on welfare.”

John Healey’s wife is Jackie Bate, they married on October 25 1993 and share one son together.