Wes Streeting has blamed “poor leadership, poor judgment and bad policy” from No 10 for the resignations of John Healey as defense secretary and Al Carns as defense minister after a row at the top of the government over defense spending.
In an exclusive interview with New statesmanStreeting, who resigned as health secretary in May and is planning to challenge Keir Starmer for the Labor leadership, said the dispute “underlines the case for change and change quickly, because we can’t go through this inertia any longer.” He also presented several proposals to fund defense spending and attacked the government’s “juvenile” whistleblowing against Healey.
Streeting told him NS: “I just urge my colleagues to wake up and smell the coffee if they haven’t already. To take really seriously what John Healey and Al Carns have been saying about protecting our country and realize that at the heart of these challenges is poor leadership, poor judgment and bad policy. And if that doesn’t change, we’re going to give this seat to Nigel Farwn. conscience.”
The former health secretary said Healey and Carns had been treated badly by Number 10 and the Treasury, and that their departures showed “this is not a government that is open to ideas, this is not a government that is willing to rely on expertise”.
Healey and Carns resigned on Thursday in protest at the government’s Defense Investment Plan (DIP), which they said was “inadequate” to protect the country and keep armed services personnel safe. Keir Starmer has defended the DIP as a “tough decision”, while anonymous government sources attacked Healey as a proponent of using public service cuts to fund military spending.
Streeting, who is open about his plans to challenge Starmer after the Makerfield by-election is over, described the government’s anti-Healey briefing as “juvenile” and said it “humiliated his critics”.
He told him NS: “The other thing that has really disappointed me in the last 24 hours is that John Healey is one of the most respected figures in the whole of the Labor Party. He’s a good man and he’s been an excellent defense secretary, and the way he was attacked by Downing Street yesterday and the accusation leveled at him by I think, frankly, I really wanted him to cut school funding. He actually humiliated critics of him and it showed that there is a level of, I just think, total non-seriousness about the scale of the challenge that the country is facing, as well as the scale of the challenge that the party is facing.”
Streeting has rejected the idea of a binary choice between defense spending and spending on public services, putting forward several alternative proposals for rearmament funding if he were to become Prime Minister. He issued inheritance tax-free defense bonds as a way for the public to help finance military spending through their own savings and investments. The former health secretary also suggested Britain could join the Defense Security and Resilience Bank, the multilateral development bank for defense investment by allied democracies.
He told him NS: “We’ve seen serious proposals about the Defense Security and Resilience Bank, which is now led by Canada. Excellent initiative. We’re not part of it. We’ve seen serious proposals about defense bonds, which would be inheritance tax-free defense bonds, so that we can take the huge sums of money that are currently sitting in all kinds of other big savings and not investing in other active interests and not invested in our nation today.”
In Streeting’s opinion, the Prime Minister has failed to take responsibility for defense spending, as well as a number of other issues. “(He) says he takes responsibility. I don’t think he does, actually. I don’t think he’s taken responsibility or even acknowledged what happened to the good Labor people who lost their seats in May. And I don’t think he’s taken responsibility for capturing this Defense Investment Plan and when you have a defense secretary saying the chancellor isn’t willing to lead it, the prime minister isn’t willing to fund it. it’s time for change and change fast because we can’t go through this inertia any longer.”
He also criticized the government for announcing a £4.5 billion walking and cycling scheme the day after Healey and Carns resigned, calling it “bad judgment as well as bad policy”.
“Now, as a former health secretary, I’m all for walking and cycling,” he said. “I think those are good things, but would people who are watching and listening honestly say that if you have a secretary of defense telling you that there are not enough funds to keep our country safe, would you, the next day, as a matter of style, let alone substance, have an announcement of four and a half billion for walking and biking? he said. “That’s not a choice I would make, and I think it’s a really good example of bad judgment, bad politics as well as bad politics.”
Streeting said that while he was “used to hearing complaints from supporters who felt they were completely disenfranchised”, it was a surprise “to see good ministers treated like this”.
He told him NS: “I think that’s the other thing that’s clear to me, having served in government, but also revealed publicly now by John and Al: this is not a government that’s open to ideas; this is not a government that’s willing to rely on expertise. I mean, John Healey was given the defense settlement on Monday afternoon, and as I understand your secret plan to release it this week.”
Wes Streeting’s full interview with the New Statesman will be available next week
(Further reading: Why John Healey had to resign)
