A summary of today's developments
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Dan Jarvis has been named as the new defence secretary, replacing John Healey following his shock resignation this afternoon. Healey said the spending increase in defence investment plan “falls well short” of what is required”. He also criticised the chancellor Reeves for being unwilling to fund defence by enough, and the prime minister for being too weak to over-rule her. Healey added he was resigning because he did not think defence was getting enough and under these plans, he would have to take decisions that could make Britain “less safe”.
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The armed forces minister, Al Carns, also quit over the government’s defence spending plans. He wrote on X: “We owe those who serve the UK the kit to do the job and the loyalty to stand by them when it’s done. We are failing on both.”
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Keir Starmer has insisted a key defence funding plan “will provide the resources our military needs to keep us safe” in a letter to John Healey, who the prime minister said he was sorry to see resign as defence secretary. Starmer added: “You are also right that we have to go further. The Defence Investment Plan does just that - delivering an unprecedented increase in defence spending in a sustainable way.”
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General Sir Richard Barrons, one of the three experts who wrote the government’s 2025 defence review, has said John Healey’s resignation, and the decisions that prompted it, shows the government is “going backwards” on defence spending.
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All asylum seekers have been vacated from the Bell hotel in Essex, which became a flashpoint for anti-immigration protests last summer, according to local council authorities.
A target of more than half of short urban journeys being walked or cycled within nine years has been announced by the government.
The Department for Transport (DfT)’s new cycling and walking investment strategy sets out an ambition for 55% of journeys under five miles to be made on foot or by bike in England’s towns and cities by 2035.
The current level is 48%, according to the department.
A target of 60% of children aged between five and 16 usually travelling to school by walking or cycling by the same year has also been created.
The government said it is projected to invest more than £4.5 billion in active travel over the next five years.
In partnership with DfT agency Active Travel England and local authorities, this will help deliver 5,000 new walking, cycling and wheeling routes, and 10,000 new road crossings connecting homes with schools, high streets and local services, both by 2030.
Luke Pollard has released a statement on social media confirming he is staying as the defence readiness minister.
Pollard, MP for for Plymouth Sutton & Devonport, wrote on X: “John Healey is a friend and a mentor. He is one of the most serious and decent public servants I know.
“I respect his decision to leave the government today, and I’m grateful for all he’s done for our nation.
“The threats the UK faces are real and they’re growing. We need to meet this moment.
“I’m staying on as a defence minister to play my part in getting this right.
“I know Dan Jarvis will give his all in the MoD as defence secretary as he did previously in uniform and I look forward to working with him to rearm and rebuild our forces.”
The US government has backed plans to keep a shipwreck’s “iconic” masts in the UK.
US ambassador to the UK Warren Stephens said Washington and London are trying to strike a deal to preserve the masts of the SS Richard Montgomery.
About 1,400 tons of explosives are aboard the American Liberty ship, which sank in the Thames Estuary almost 82 years ago and has remained off the coast of Sheerness, Kent, ever since.
Its masts are visible above the water line, and the Department for Transport (DfT) earlier this year announced a £9.5 million plan to remove them.
Labour MP Kevin McKenna previously launched a campaign to keep them in the UK.
A DfT spokesperson said: “These masts have been a landmark in the Thames Estuary for over 80 years.
“We are exploring options for the future of the masts with the US government, to remove them safely and to ensure the remarkable story lives on.”
Carns added: “For my own part, I will keep arguing for a politics rooted in resilience, seriousness and national renewal. For a country where working people can once again feel secure about the future. And for the service personnel and veterans this government still has a duty to.
“The deal this country makes with the people who serve it, in uniform, in classrooms, on building sites, is broken. I’m going to spend my time on the backbenches trying to fix it.
“I’ll keep fighting for the people I served with. I hope this government will too.”
In his resignation letter, Al Carns said: “Too many working people in this country feel insecure even when they are doing everything right. They work hard, contribute, pay their taxes and still feel one setback away from trouble. Public confidence in our institutions is weakening and politics increasingly looks performative while everyday life gets harder.
“The machinery of government itself has been left to decay. Decisions that should take days, take months. Departments fight each other instead of the problem. Officials and ministers who know the truth are not always rewarded for telling it. We are trying to govern a more dangerous world with processes designed for a calmer one, and the gap is now showing in the things that matter most.
“National resilience is about more than defence in the narrow sense. A strong country is not simply one with capable armed forces. It is one where working people feel economically secure, public services function, energy is resilient, communities are stable and young people can see a future worth working towards.”
On Dan Jarvis’s appointment, Keir Starmer said: “My first duty is to keep the British people safe, and I will always do what is necessary to protect our national security.
“I am pleased to appoint Dan Jarvis as defence secretary as we strengthen our armed forces and meet the growing threats facing our country.
“This Labour government is delivering the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War.
“In a dangerous and volatile world, we will give our armed forces the capabilities they need to defend Britain and keep our nation secure.”
Jarvis named new defence secretary
Dan Jarvis has been named as the new defence secretary, replacing John Healey.
In his resignation letter, Al Carns called for a change in government.
If my resignation accelerates the transition towards resolution, then the impact will far outweigh the act. We need a new way of governing and we need it now.
Carns quits over defence spending plan
The armed forces minister, Al Carns, has quit over the government’s defence spending plans.
He wrote on X: “We owe those who serve the UK the kit to do the job and the loyalty to stand by them when it’s done. We are failing on both.”
Updated
Today’s Tif Latest podcast has dropped and is about John Healey resigning as defence secretary.
Sir Rich Knighton, the head of the armed forces, wrote to military personnel on Thursday evening after John Healey’s resignation said he looked forward to “welcoming our new defence secretary when they are announced”.
The chief of the defence staff also told members of the armed forces “to remain apolitical” and not be drawn into speculation about funding decisions “that are for ministers to make” in a message sent internally to all members of the armed forces.
In a letter to Keir Starmer, Pamela Nash, Labour MP for Motherwell, Wishaw and Carluke, said: “I regret to inform you that I am resigning as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Defence, and the Defence Ministerial Team, following John Healey’s resignation earlier today. This is not an action I take lightly.
“The defence of our nation is the most important responsibility for any government. The delays and difficulties with securing the necessary funding to progress the defence investment plan has been the latest issue that is damaging to the trust of the public in us.
“We saw this laid bare in last month’s election results. Our Government’s successes are consistently drowned out by mistakes and the failure to be bold when it matters most.
“Our country is more divided now than it has ever been in my lifetime, and our political opponents are both the provokers and the beneficiaries. If we cannot provide a strong vision for the UK’s future, and enact a clear, progressive route to get there, then we are allowing the unthinkable: for those opponents to take power. We must do better.
“On a personal level, I wish to thank you for the support that you have given me. I am forever grateful for the opportunity to serve in our Labour Government which we all worked so hard to get elected.
“I will continue to strive from the backbenches for the future my constituents in Motherwell, Wishaw, and Carluke deserve and I hope that our movement can come together to achieve this for people across the UK.”
Pamela Nash has resigned as parliamentary private secretary to John Healey, following his decision to quit as defence secretary in a dispute over funding for the armed forces, the Labour MP announced in a letter to the prime minister.
Healey is the fourth Cabinet minister to leave Starmer’s government since coming to power and the second to resign over policy differences after Wes Streeting quit as health secretary last month amid the fallout from Labour’s local election losses.
Healey is understood to have asked all other defence ministers to remain in their posts.
Defence minister Al Carns has said the amount of funding in the defence investment plan (Dip) “isn’t enough” for the armed forces.
Carns, who remains a defence minister after his boss John Healey quit, told Sky News: “I wasn’t in the defence investment plan, I saw it two weeks ago and when I saw it, I wasn’t happy with the level of transformation within it, particularly the lessons from Ukraine, uncrewed systems, automation and pulling those lessons into every section of our armed forces.
“I think there’s much more work to be done in that space, but then when you match that with a funding settlement as we move to 2030, it isn’t enough.”
Carns also signalled he would consider his position in government if the defence investment plan is not “right by the armed forces”.
Asked if he was considering his position, he said: “So, within the situation, I need to do what’s right by the armed forces, and if I don’t think that’s right, then I will absolutely consider my position, and from my perspective, at the moment, we have not closed with this deal.
“When we are closed with this deal, I will decide my position.”
Carns said he was “not expecting an offer” from No 10 to be the next defence secretary.
A monitoring group repeatedly warned the Police Service of Northern Ireland over the past eight months that anti-immigration activists were circulating the addresses of properties that were targeted in this week’s Belfast riots.
The Accountability Project Northern Ireland, a volunteer group formed last summer to monitor anti-immigration activity online, sent dozens of reports to the PSNI between November 2025 and June 2026.
They warned of a growing focus on houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) by anti-immigration and far-right people, something they first observed in August 2025.
The Guardian understands a so-called hitlist of addresses has been circulating among far-right groups since August 2025 and was sent to the PSNI in January 2026. The addresses were among the locations targeted during this week’s anti-immigration disorder.
Here is more of Starmer’s letter to Healey, who resigned earlier today, on Thursday evening.
“The world today is more dangerous and uncertain than at any point in our lifetimes. That requires a serious response to build our economic resilience and our national defences.
“We have achieved a great deal working together. We inherited a situation where our armed forces had faced years of underfunding and neglect. Our work leading the coalition of the willing on Ukraine, defending our Gulf allies, and working together with like-minded nations on a plan for the Strait of Hormuz has helped make the world more secure. I am proud of our record on funding. When we entered government in 2024, I took the decision to increase defence spending after the Conservatives hollowed out our armed forces. That required a cut to the international aid budget but the result was the highest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War. I will always do what is needed to keep our country safe. I thank you for your work to deliver on all of this.
“You are also right that we have to go further. The defence investment plan does just that — delivering an unprecedented increase in defence spending in a sustainable way. It will provide the resources our military needs to keep us safe and the clarity the British defence industry needs to plan. It will make the big strategic investments we need for the long-term and give the certainty which private finance needs to invest. It will allow our armed forces to transform and modernise and back them with the tools they need to change the way we fight — and to deter our enemies. And crucially it will ensure the money spent is spent wisely and used to back jobs and growth here in Britain.
“We are backing this with the necessary investment. The increases in spending that underpin this plan will be sustainable and fair. They will mean significant reallocations of funding from across government departments and the right choices to protect our nation.”
Starmer’s letter to Healey concludes: “Strong public finances are part of what keeps us safe - irresponsible borrowing only puts that at risk.
“Taking these decisions is never easy. I am determined to rebuild our country after years of being buffeted by crises. I am sorry that you will not be part of that work.”
Starmer says defence funding plan “will provide resources our military needs to keep us safe” in letter to Healey
Keir Starmer has insisted a key defence funding plan “will provide the resources our military needs to keep us safe” in a letter to John Healey, who the prime minister said he was sorry to see resign as defence secretary.
Starmer added: “You are also right that we have to go further. The Defence Investment Plan does just that - delivering an unprecedented increase in defence spending in a sustainable way.”
Updated
Government 'going backwards' on military spending, says former general who co-wrote its defence review
General Sir Richard Barrons, one of the three experts who wrote the government’s 2025 defence review, has said John Healey’s resignation, and the decisions that prompted it, shows the government is “going backwards” on defence spending.
In a statement he said:
The SDR [strategic defence review] was clear that preparing for war in the 21st century is not simply about filling long-standing gaps in equipment, personnel or capability. It is about transformation: changing the way the UK thinks about, funds, organises and delivers defence.
Yet, a year after the SDR was agreed, the government has decided not to fully fund its own review. In doing so, it is not merely failing to move forward; it is actively going backwards.
It diminishes the UK’s standing within Nato, weakens our credibility with allies, and increases our vulnerability to the realities of 21st-century conflict. Allies and adversaries alike will be paying attention.
The government has, in effect, decided not to fund the defence review it commissioned and endorsed, because it prefers to spend money elsewhere. That is a political choice.
No one wants to spend more on defence for its own sake. But we are living in the world as it is, not the world as we would like it to be. We do not get to choose whether war matters. War can choose us, whether we prefer to ignore it or not.
Barrons, who was commander of Joint Forces Command until 2016, co-wrote the defence review with Lord Robertson, the former Nato secretary general, and Fiona Hill, a former White House intelligence expert.
That’s all from me for today. Nadeem Badshah is taking over now.
Badenoch condemned by Lib Dems after she suggests Tories under her would prop up minority Reform UK government
Kemi Badenoch has suggested that, if Reform UK were the largest party in the hung parliament, the Conservatives might enable Nigel Farage to run a minority government.
She dropped the hint in an interview with the Spectator’s political editor Tim Shipman, where she also ruled out a pre-election deal with Reform UK.
But when Shipman asked if she would rule out an arrangement with Reform UK after an election, Badenoch replied:
This country cannot have another leftwing government. This is the most leftwing parliament we have ever had.
Shipman interpreted this as a clear sign that Badenoch would keep a minority Reform UK government in power, for example by not voting against it on budget or confidence matters.
In response to the interview, Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, said:
Kemi Badenoch just said the quiet bit out loud, the Conservatives are now openly planning to put Nigel Farage into Number 10.
This will put a shiver down the spine of millions of Conservative voters across the country who believe in British values of decency, tolerance and the rule of law.
In fact, Badenoch did not say “out loud” that she would prop up a Reform UK government and, when a politics account put a message on X saying she was suggesting a coalition with Farage, she posted a response describing that as “bullshit”. She also posted a clip from the interview.
In his own response, Shipman pointed out that she has edited the clip selectively. He said:
Kemi Badenoch has conveniently cut the question I asked her, which was directly relating to propping up Reform AFTER an election as an alternative to Labour plus some crazy lefties.
That’s when she said there must never be another left wing govt. Her ‘no, no, no...’ answer was about pacts BEFORE an election. It did not follow on directly.
Yes, she says Reform has some leftwing policies, but she made totally clear she would work with a party pursuing a ‘conservative’ agenda, which is clearly what Reform is mostly advocating.
The proof is that she says she is already in a casual arrangement with Rupert Lowe. The lady doth protest too much. It was very clear in the room what I was asking NO ONE, me or her, was talking about a coalition
Although Badenoch has accused Reform UK of being leftwing in some aspects, in most policy areas their approach is similar to the Conservatives’ and no serious commentator thinks they are anything other than a rightwing party.
In his write-up of the interview for the magazine, Shipman said:
Badenoch also gave the clearest answer to what I find the most tedious question in British politics: whether there will be a pact or deal between Reform and the Tories. The truth is obvious: there won’t be unless there needs to be, though that is more likely after a general election than before it.
Badenoch says the Tories could win and claims there is a ‘high chance’ she will become prime minister. But asked explicitly whether she would be prepared to put Farage into No 10 if he fell short of a majority, she made it clear the answer is yes: ‘This country cannot have another leftwing government.’
She ruled out standing down candidates or an arrangement to target resources so the two parties could focus on different seats, however. ‘We don’t need to do a pact … deals, non-aggression pacts. These things end up falling apart anyway.’ Instead, Badenoch implied she would accept a confidence and supply deal to ‘deliver a conservative agenda’.
The Spectator subsequently amended the online version of the article (presumably in response to a complaint) so that passage marked in bold above reads (new text in bold):
But asked explicitly whether she would be prepared to put Farage into No 10 if he fell short of a majority, she made it clear the answer is likely yes, as long as he pursues conservative policies.
The tweak does not alter the substantive point; Farage would pursue conservative policies.
Bell hotel in Epping, site of anti-migrant protests, now empty of asylum seekers, council says
Ben Quinn is a Guardian political correspondent.
All asylum seekers have been vacated from the Bell hotel in Essex, which became a flashpoint for anti-immigration protests last summer, according to local council authorities.
Only security staff remain onsite, Epping Forest district council said in a short statement which said it had been taken by surprise despite ongoing talks with the Home Office,
The hotel, which is on the outskirts of Epping, became the focus for increasingly large protests last summer.
While local people were among those involved, far-right activists and others from outside the area sought to exploit tensions after Hadush Kebatu, an asylum seeker who was living in the hotel, sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl and a woman.
Epping District council said in a statement:
We are aware that the Home Office has vacated all residents staying at The Bell hotel, Epping and that only security staff remain onsite.
Despite ongoing engagement with the Home Office, we did not know in advance that this was going to happen. We are seeking clarification from the Home Office on the details of what has happened and what their next steps will be.
It’s not clear if the move is permanent and the Home Office had yet to respond. However, local people who spoke to the Guardian today criticised the council for releasing the statement and said it was understood that the move may only be temporary.
The high court ruled in November that asylum seekers could continue to be housed at the Essex hotel.
Lawyers for the local district council had sought a permanent injunction against the current use of the Bell hotel in Epping, arguing at the high court that it was a “feeding ground for unrest and protest”.
Kebatu was deported in October to Ethiopia. But protests have intermittently continued outside the hotel, where two security guards were assaulted in what police described as a “racially motivated attack” during the summer.
Police were also attacked and made dozens of arrests as the protests spilled over into violence in July.
Updated
Healey's resignation - verdict from the commentariat
This is what some commentators are saying about John Healey’s resignation.
From Shashank Joshi, the Economist’s former defence editor:
A few thoughts on Healey’s departure.
At the end of the day, the root cause is a failed defence review process. The review proposed things on the basis that spending would rise to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, a relatively modest pace of growth that was & is incompatible with everything the UK wants to do—GCAP, AUKUS, a strategic reserve corps for NATO on land, carrier strike & more munitions/readiness.
The gov’t was unwilling either to make choices among these, which would have been politically and diplomatically painful, or to spend *significantly* more in the short & medium term, instead pointing to non-credible commitments out into the mid-2030s. There was and is no credible path to the 3.5% of GDP target by 2035 that the PM publicly agreed at the Hague last year.
Now the UK is going to go into the Ankara summit in a weak position, with a teetering government, and with a likely successor to Starmer who is no more likely to support higher defence spending, all with predictable consequences for the US-UK relationship.
From Robert Peston, ITV’s political editor:
The fact that Starmer was unable to come up with adequate cuts in other departments, to finance the extra £18bn per annum that Healey sees as the minimum required by 2030, was foreshadowed in a conversation I had with a member of the cabinet a couple of days ago.
This minister made two points:
First, why would the prime minister want to be remembered by posterity for re-imposing austerity on most public services other than defence;
Second, why would any minister agree to cuts wanted by Starmer when there was so much uncertainty whether he would actually survive as PM, if Burnham becomes an MP in eight days?
Healey’s double whammy against Starmer - accusing him of not keeping the nation safe enough, implying he has inadequate authority over his cabinet - could barely be more serious for the PM.
From Lewis Goodall from the News Agents podcast:
Consequences
1) makes even slimmer chance of PM surviving a Makerfield win for Burnham. Reeves surviving as Chancellor less probable too. Doesn’t get worse politically than your Defence Sec accusing you of leaving country vulnerable to attack, however fair.
2) places defence even higher up agenda. Pressure will be on Burnham to pledge more, placing even greater pressure on spending.
3) internationally deeply awkward for Starmer. Trump/White House certain to notice.
4) makes any discussion about the WHAT we need not just how much % of gdp even harder to have.
From Tim Shipman, the Spectator’s political editor:
Proof of three things:
1) John Healey is not the shrinking violet some in the military feared
2) The government is in no way taking the current threats to the defence of the realm seriously
3) Starmer government is a sinking ship which can’t get out of the docks on key issues
Healey’s resignation is far more consequential on an issue of war and peace than Michael Heseltine’s over Westland. That was about contracts, this is about whether the Treasury is going to adequately protect the country. Starmer clearly hasn’t the clout to deliver what the armed forces need.
From Philip Stephens, the former chief political commentator at the Financial Times:
Striking contrast between the resignations of streeting and healey - first driven by personal ambition, second by difference over vital policy …that makes Healey’s departure much more dangerous , quite likely fatal for pm
Irony is that while Healey going makes Starmers position even more precarious it also makes the idea of a Burnham premiership look even more absurd …
Inscribed on Keir Starmer’s political gravestone - “I did what I was told by the Treasury”
Updated
Peter Walker has written a good profile of John Healey. He says Healey’s resignation should not have come as a complete surprise.
Here is an extract.
Despite his managerial veneer and quiet approach, Healey is a highly political operator, one who has spent nearly 30 years in parliament and held frontbench jobs under every Labour leader from Tony Blair onwards.
“If we go into government, the one thing we’ve got to remember is to remain political,” Healey told the Guardian shortly before the 2024 election, recounting his previous experience of being in meetings with colleagues who “simply read out their departmental line rather than as government ministers with a sense of what we were trying to achieve”.
Healey knew what he wanted to achieve – not just the promised 3.5% of GDP spent on defence by 2035, but at least 3% by 2030 – and he resigned rather than being forced to plan for the UK’s defence with less.
And here is the full article.
Matthew Pennycook, the housing minister, has posted this on social media about John Healey’s resignation.
I had the privilege of serving as John Healey’s PPS in opposition back in 2015/16.
He is a man of deep principle and has been an outstanding Defence Secretary.
I’m saddened that he felt he had no choice but to leave government.
Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s former chief of staff, has been tweeting about John Healey’s resignation letter. He has long been a severe critic of MoD procurement, and he has some sympathy with what Healey is saying. As usual with Cummings, his rant sounds entirely unhinged, but that does not necessarily mean it is wholly wrong. Here is an excerpt.
The DIP [defence investment plan] is a disaster because it combines: a/ continuing to fund old things which shd be scrapped but senior people’s careers rest on lying about, b/ failure to fund the future, c/ more dodgy accounts, d/ classified nuke shitshow, which forces lies/cannibalisation of conventional, and e/ continued failure to change procurement and long term budgets despite covid and UKR [Ukraine].
Updated
And here is a thinktank with a different take on the defence investment plan. This is from Khem Rogaly, co-director of the Transition Security Project, a research unit hosted by Common Wealth. He says:
The debate over increasing military spending has been unserious and damaging to our security. [John] Healey’s Ministry of Defence has constantly leaked its unpublished internal assessment that it faces a shortfall, despite a budget that has increased by nearly a third over the past decade and that is larger now in real terms than it was in 1980.
Too little attention has been paid to the Ministry of Defence’s litany of failed and delayed programmes, with more spending expected for the Ajax tank while cuts are demanded from departments essential to national resilience like net zero.
Even less attention is paid to the fact that the Ministry of Defence retains a global strategy, with bases across the world and forces designed for intervention overseas.
Instead of lobbying for yet larger spending increases and arbitrary targets set by percentage of GDP, the Ministry of Defence should be asked to focus its resources on national defence.
Labour's defence policy 'mired in unreality' - thinktanks respond to Healey's resignation
Here are comments on the significance of John Healey’s resignation from two thinktanks specialising in defence and foreign policy.
This is from Olivia O’Sullivan, director of the UK in the World programme at Chatham House.
Politically, this significantly undermines [Keir] Starmer. Healey has been an ally and a loyal minister to date. Starmer has also had a relatively assured track record on defence and foreign affairs, compared with other issues, and failing to secure agreement over the UK’s future plans for defence spending at a time of spiralling security risks in Europe undermines that potential legacy.
In policy terms, this is a symptom of a longer-term failure to reckon with the costs of rising defence commitments. The government put a target of 2.5% of GDP on the table in its first year – and is committed to hitting 3.5% of GDP within the next decade – and neither imposed tax rises, nor agreed cuts to public spending to pay for it; other than cuts to the aid budget, which were never going to yield enough to fill the gap, and have significant consequences of their own for the UK’s international policy.
Waiting this long to have the argument that should have been had when the targets were set, or in immediate response to 2025’s strategic defence review, suggests the government conversation on defence is still mired in unreality.
And this is from Prof Kevin Rowlands, journal editor at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).
Military capability development depends on long lead times, predictable budgets, and confidence that national security priorities will survive ministerial change. Without that confidence procurement decisions get deferred, industry pauses, and programmes slip. It affects manufacturing, supply chains, training and skills development, and even international alliances.
The delay to the DIP [defence investment plan] had become an unfunny running joke, but the decision of the defence secretary to resign is not the least bit amusing. Healey knows the threats we face, he knows the capabilities and shortfalls the armed forces have, and if he believes that the financial settlement is not enough to keep the country safe – to the extent that he cannot honourably stay in post – then we are in trouble.
Italy's defence minister tells Healey he agrees with 'almost everything' he has said
Guido Crosetto, the Italian defence minister, has posted a message on social media expressing solidarity with John Healey. Crosetto says, in effect, that he agrees with what Healey has said, that he has considered resigning for the same reasons himself, but that for the moment he has decided to carry on fighting that battle within government.
Here is an excerpt.
I find myself in agreement with almost everything you have written, and the thoughts you have made public today have often been my own as well.
I have chosen to wait for less difficult times, hoping for a positive evolution of the current circumstances.
The Italian government has just announced that it has got its defence and security spending up to 2.8% of GDP.
Wes Streeting praises Healey, and says 'every word' in his call for higher defence spending 'needs to be heeded'
Wes Streeting, the former health secretary, has posted this on social media about John Healey’s resignation letter.
John was an excellent Defence Secretary.
Every word of warning here needs to be heeded.
Streeting is already running an informal campaign for the Labour leadership (he has said that a proper contest should wait until Andy Burnham is back in parliament) and this sounds like he would give the Ministry of Defence much or all of what Healey is asking for if he were to become leader.
Burnham has not said much about defence policy in recent weeks. But, as Daniel Green says in a good LabourList guide to Burnham’s policy agenda, Burnham has backed higher defence spending in the past.
Any future PM wanting to boost spending in the defence investment plan would soon find out why Rachel Reeves did not give Healey what he wanted; something would have to give elsewhere.
(Burnham has suggested that extra borrowing, outside the fiscal rules, might be a way round that. Some argue that this would spook the bond markets, but Gordon Brown has also argued for a version of this idea.)
And Reform UK has issued this statement about John Healey’s resignation. It’s from Richard Tice, the party’s deputy leader.
John Healey has exposed the prime minister’s true priorities, with the devastating admission that neither he nor the Treasury is willing to commit the resources needed to properly defend our country.
In effect, he has acknowledged that Keir Starmer is leaving the British people less safe. Much of the hot air and blather we’ve heard over the past year following the strategic defence review has been for nothing.
Healey, who is widely respected, has effectively revealed a government that is prioritising Benefit Street over the security of the British public.
This is quite similar to the Conservatives’ argument. (See 1.48pm.)
Here is some Labour reaction to the resignation of John Healey.
This is from Tan Dhesi, the chair of the Commons defence committee.
John Healey has been a serious, committed and respected defence secretary, who has understood the scale of the threats facing the UK and the urgent need to strengthen our armed forces.
That a defence secretary of his integrity and commitment has felt compelled to resign in response to the inadequacy of the proposed defence settlement is a grave moment. The government must take that warning with the utmost seriousness.
The defence committee has been clear that investment in defence must be accelerated to reach 3% of GDP by the end of this parliament, and that the defence investment plan cannot be delayed further or used to disguise hard choices.
And this is from Dan Carden, who heads the Blue Labour group of Labour MPs.
John Healey has resigned on a point of principle, and I have huge respect for him
Defence spending must rise significantly, but you do not keep Britain safe with a bigger cheque alone.
Britain has for decades mistaken wealth for strength, and spending for capability, and now we are neither safe nor sovereign.
A country with a shrinking industrial base that cannot power its own factories or make its own weapons is not strong, whatever it spends.
Strength is not only bought. It is built. We must spend more and build more. This government and my party have to commit to both, urgently.
Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, says John Healey’s resignation shows the government is in chaos. In a statement, he says:
This is a government in chaos, unable to govern, with no leadership, under a caretaker prime minister who’s expected to be replaced within weeks … Britain deserves better. We need a clear plan to stand on our own two feet, to show global leadership, and to make this country resilient in a changing world. Starmer does not have that plan.
Two people arrested and fined after anti-migrant unrest in Greenock, Police Scotland says
Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.
Police in Greenock, the coastal town on the Firth of Clyde, arrested and fined two people after anti-immigrant disturbances on Wednesday night.
Police Scotland said three officers suffered minor injuries after being hit by “items thrown at them” and two police vehicles damaged during disturbances on Main Street, Greenock.
The two arrested were given fixed penalty notices for anti-social behaviour. In similar violence in Glasgow on Tuesday night, police made three arrests, and members of the public and officers were also injured.
Chief Supt Rhona Fraser said:
Our priority is public safety and we had an appropriate policing plan in place for last night’s demonstration.
We understand the concerns people have about their communities and will always balance the right to freedom of expression with the need to tackle crime without fear or favour.
Officers were attacked and police vehicles were damaged. I strongly condemn that violence and there is no place for it in Scotland.
Defence minister Al Carns says defence investment plan 'not fit for purpose', as he praises Healey's 'serious service'
Al Carns, the former Royal Marine who only became an MP in 2024, who was immediately appointed a defence minister and who has even hinted that he would like to stand for the Labour leadership soon, has issued a statement on social media praising his former boss. Here is an extract.
John Healey has given this country serious service in a serious time.
He took on the Ministry of Defence at a moment when the world was getting more dangerous, not less, and he carried that weight with the discipline and decency that the job demands.
I worked alongside him closely. I saw the hours, the care, and the seriousness he brought to every brief, including the hardest ones. There are issues facing this Department that do not lend themselves to easy answers. The work on funding, on veterans, on Legacy, on the welfare of those who serve.
As Pippa says (see 2.14pm), Keir Starmer will need appoint a new defence secretary soon. (There are some cabinet jobs you can leave empty for a bit, but the defence post is not one of them.) Carns himself could be a candidate to replace him. (Luke Pollard, the well-regarded minister of state at the Ministry of Defence, is senior to Carns in the MoD pecking order, but Carns had a stellar career in the armed forces and his appointment would be well received.) But Carns has told Times Radio today that the defence investment plan is “not fit for purpose”, implying he would not take the job unless Rachel Reeves were to agree to a significant rethink.
Pippa Crerar on what Healey's resignation means for Starmer
Here is a snap analysis of John Healey’s resignation by Pippa Crerar, the Guardian’s political editor.
John Healey’s departure puts Keir Starmer in an even more difficult position than he was already.
The former defence sec’s charge that he is putting UK’s security at risk is a devastating one - which will worry Labour MPs & cut through with voters. The fact Tories underfunded defence for years won’t wash.
It further weakens Starmer in that this was supposed to be his strong point - and has repeatedly said that keeping nation safe is his number one priority.
Cabinet relations have been badly damaged by the protracted row over plan - with the standoff leading to some of worst infighting since Labour took power over cuts to other department’s capital budgets.
International allies will notice Healey’s resignation - and reasons why. PM is meeting G7 allies in France next week & is in Ankara for a Nato summit in early July. Awkward timing.
Starmer may also struggle to appoint a credible new defence secretary - for all the ambitious MPs out there - who will be prepared to make case for this plan now?
It also impacts Reeves, who blocked extra spending, and leaves her open to charge of leaving nation unsafe. She faces impossible choices over spending - but many will feel defence should have been priority.
It all makes Starmer’s departure - already looking likely - feel inevitable. While his allies say he’ll fight any challenge from Andy Burnham if he wins Makerfield - he’s just lost one of his most senior cabinet ministers. When the herd moves, and all that.
Unite's leader Sharon Graham says Healey's resignation shows work on defence investment plan has been 'utter chaos'
Higher defence spending is normally a cause championed by people on the right in politics. But one of the leading voices calling for the publication of an ambitious defence investment plan (DIP) has been Unite, the union led by the leftwing Sharon Graham. Unite has a lot of members working in the defence sector, and Unite has been campaigning for a settlement that will secure jobs.
Commenting on Healey’s resignation, Graham said:
What is going on in regard to yet another delay on the DIP is fast becoming a national disgrace. Make no mistake jobs and skills are at risk.
John Healey’s resignation letter has laid bare the utter chaos at the heart of government on this issue. Defending the UK and investing in our defence industry simply can’t be done on the cheap. British defence needs investment. Failure to protect UK defence jobs would be a national betrayal.
Healey's resignation 'utterly damning' for Starmer, says SNP
The SNP says John Healey’s resignation is “utterly damning” for Keir Stamer. In a statement, Dave Doogan, the SNP leader at Westminster, said:
Keir Starmer is putting Scotland’s safety at risk by failing to deliver the vital defence investment that is needed in the face of growing international threats.
The resignation of the UK defence secretary, at a time of global crisis, is utterly damning for the prime minister - and it will be the final nail in his sorry time in office.
Yet again, the Labour government is in chaos - and it is putting Scotland and the UK’s defence in jeopardy at the worst possible time.
Badenoch claims Healey's resignation shows Starmer's premiership 'falling apart'
Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, has said that the resignation of John Healey shows Keir Starmer’s premiership “is falling apart”.
Speaking to reporters, she said:
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.
(All oppositions need a simple attack line to use against the government and at the moment Badencoch is running hard with the line that Labour won’t spend money on X, or cut taxes for Y, because its MPs just want to spend more money on benefits. This makes for compelling rhetoric, and because benefit spending is rising fast in some areas it has enough truth in it to make it arguable. But, as an overall explanation for what is happening with spending, it is almost wholly wrong. See here for more on this, or here.)
John Healey is getting a lot of praise from MPs on social media – at least, from Tory MPs.
Here are some examples.
From James Cleverly, the former foreign secretary
I have always respected John Healey.
He clearly takes defence of the realm and defence of our interests more seriously than either Keir Starmer or Rachel Reeves.
From Tom Tugendhat, the former security minister
The first duty of government is defence of the Realm. @JohnHealey_MP ’s principled resignation states clearly this administration has failed.
I’ve criticised every party for the state we’re in but the truth is now clear: the complacent confidence in peace is over. We must rearm.
From Ben Obese-Jecty, a former soldier
This is a hugely principled stance from John Healey.
The chaos around the Defence Investment Plan and no agreement on how we defend the nation has caused the Secretary of State to resign. Keir Starmer’s position as Prime Minister must now be untenable
From Andrew Bowie, the shadow Scottish secretary
John Healey is an honourable man, well respected and held in high regard across the House and in the Defence community.
He has done the only thing possible given the state of the Defence Investment Plan.
All credit to him.
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has said that John Healey’s resignation should be a wake-up call for the government. He said:
Healey’s resignation is a wake-up call for Starmer and Burnham.
Stop repeating the mistakes of the Conservatives and get serious about funding our armed forces properly.
We cannot afford years more political chaos while our national security is put at risk.
And these are from Emily Maitlis, one of the hosts of the News Agents podcast, on Healey’s resignation.
BREAKING: John Healey I have been told that John Healey only got the full offer on Monday afternoon - No 10 tried to rush and publish the Defence investment Plan on Thursday. Healey was clear that rushing through the plan was too risky for defence and personnel, as the plan needed to be properly finalised and was too important. Chiefs said that £13.5B - which was only £10b real cash, the rest being treasury trickery - would not end hollowing out and would delay key transformation
I understand that John Healey had agreed the Strategic Defence Review on the basis it MIGHT NEED TO BE ACCELERATED if things changed. NATO as we know has said we have to be ready for conflict by 2030 - meawhile Russian aggression is at record highs, wars on two continents etc. The PM recognised this in Munich. But the deal the PM offered didnt even put a date on 3%.
This is from Deborah Haynes, defence and security editor at Sky News, on John Healey’s resignation.
BREAKING: The Treasury only offered the Ministry of Defence an extra £10bn in real cash for its investment plan over four years - the actual settlement was an additional £13.5bn but £3.5bn of that was regarded by military chiefs as treasury trickery. John Healey told the Prime Minister the promised funding was not enough to keep the UK safe.
Healey says he would have to take decisions that could make UK 'less safe' if he accepted PM's defence plans
Here is a summary of all the points in John Healey’s resignation letter.
-
Healey said the version of the long-awaited defence investment plan (DIP) that he saw on Monday this week would see defence spending rise to just 2.68% of GDP by 2030. (See 12.44pm.)
-
He criticised Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, for being unwilling to give defence more, and Keir Starmer for being unwilling to over-rule her. (See 12.30pm.)
-
He said he was resigning because he did not think defence was getting enough and, under these plans, he would have to take decisions that could make Britain “less safe”. He 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.
-
He reminded Starmer that, in a speech last week, Starmer said: “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.”
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Healey said he was resigning “with great regret and reluctance”.
-
He said he was proud of some of his achievements as defence secretary.
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.
-
He said that Starmer is facing “exceptional challenges”. He ended his letter saying:
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.
This was the only reference in the letter to the leadership challenge that Starmer if facing after next week’s Makerfield byelection. Healey’s resignation is likely to be seen as evidence that Starmer’s authority as PM is weakening. But there is no evidence that Healey would get a better defence settlement under Andy Burnham, or any other of the potential replacement leaders, and Healey’s resignation does not particularly help any of Starmer’s rivals.
Andy Burnham’s campaign has released a statement saying that when he spoke about “some recompense” for the Waspi women (see 11.50am), he was not talking about financial compensation. As the Times reports, a Burnham spokesperson issued a statement this morning saying:
Andy has always recognised the unfair way in which state pension equalisation was introduced.
As mayor of Greater Manchester, he supported Waspi women in the city-region with early access to concessionary travel, providing some recompense to them within affordability limits.
He accepts the final decision has been made in relation to financial compensation but has indicated an openness to considering similar schemes on the Greater Manchester model.
Healey says defence spending only set to rise to 2.68% of GDP by 2030 under proposed defence investment plan
Here is the key passage in the letter. In it, John Healey says the version of the long-awaited defence investment plan that he saw on Monday this week would see defence spending rise to just 2.68% of GDP by 2030.
He says:
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.
This new era for defence required further investment through the defence investment plan. The excellent and extensive cross-government work that completed in January – overseen by you, me and the chancellor – confirmed the scale of the challenge and the rising demands on defence.
Since then, you have been unable, and the Treasury has been unwilling, to commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country at this time of rising threats.
Since then, the demands on defence have increased still further, as have the UK commitments you have rightly made to allies. Conflict in the Middle East, with the UK now leading the multinational Strait of Hormuz military mission; High North security, with the UK now leading Nato’s Arctic Sentry mission; increased Russian activity towards the UK and Nato nations and increased attacks in Ukraine, with the Paris agreement confirming a British deployment to Ukraine after a ceasefire.
We have worked to secure a defence investment plan that does two things. First, deal with the increasing operational demands on defence now and step up the SDR actions to meet the increasing threat. Second, set a clear path to meet the new Nato commitment you agreed to spend 3.5% of GDP in 2035 through the next spending review.
As we have regularly discussed, I am certain that a headmark date for 3% of GDP on defence in 2030 is what Britain must set. This commitment would have strong cross-party support. Other European allies are stepping up in this way.
I know how hard you have worked to get to this point. And in funding the DIP, I fully recognise the strain this places on colleagues in other departments, both now as you have required spending switched into defence and in the future. I am very grateful to those colleagues who have supported this, and I appreciate how difficult their choices will have been.
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.
The government still has not published the final DIP. At the weekend there were reports it might come today, and then there were reports that it might come tomorrow. In the Commons yesterday Lindsay Hoyle, the speaker, said that an announcement like that on a day when the Commons was not sitting would be “an utter disgrace and an utter kick in the face” to MPs. Ministers subsequently made it clear the DIP would not be published tomorrow.
Healey says spending increase in defence investment plan 'falls well short of what is required'
Healey says the version of the defence investment plan (DIP) he was shown on Monday “falls well short” of what is required. He says:
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.
Healey criticises Reeves for being 'unwilling' to fund defence by enough, and Starmer for being too weak to over-rule her
Here is one of the key extracts from the letter.
This new era for defence required further investment through the defence investment plan. The excellent and extensive cross-government work that completed in January – overseen by you, me and the chancellor – confirmed the scale of the challenge and the rising demands on defence.
Since then, you have been unable, and the Treasury has been unwilling, to commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country at this time of rising threats.
This is a double hatchet job. John Healey is criticising Rachel Reeves for being too stubborn to increase defence spending by the amount he wants, and Keir Starmer for being too weak to over-rule her.
Updated
Here is John Healey’s resignation letter.
John Healey has resigned as defence secretary over Treasury refusing to give defence investment he says it needs
Reuters has snapped this.
HEALEY TO STARMER: YOU HAVE BEEN UNABLE, AND THE TREASURY HAS BEEN UNWILLING, TO COMMIT THE RESOURCES THAT THE NATION NEEDS TO DEFEND THE COUNTRY AT THIS TIME OF RISING THREATS
Irish and UK governments, and NI's executive, agree to work together to 'prevent abuse' of common travel area
The UK and Irish governments and the Northern Ireland executive have discussed protecting the common travel area and stronger enforcement to “prevent abuse”, the Irish government has confirmed.
Northern Ireland secretary Hilary Benn, Irish justice minister Jim O’Callaghan and Stormont’s justice minister Naomi Long spoke by phone on Wednesday.
Today in a statement the Irish government’s Department of Justice said:
The invisible border on the island of Ireland is among the most tangible gains of the peace process and is essential to the continuing normalisation of relationships.
Minister O’Callaghan discussed the importance of cross border cooperation in protecting the common travel area [CTA] for both Ireland and the UK yesterday by phone with the Northern Ireland minister for Justice, Naomi Long and the secretary of state for Northern Ireland, Hilary Benn.
They discussed stronger co-operation and enforcement to prevent abuse of the common travel area.
Minister O’Callaghan emphasised that significant Border Management Unit doorstop operations now take place at Dublin airport. The number of people landing without documentation has reduced significantly since 2023.
Northern Ireland minister for justice Naomi Long and secretary of state for Northern Ireland, Hilary Benn, agreed to work with Minister O’Callaghan to prevent abuse of the CTA.
The rioting in Belfast has been triggered by a brutal knife attack that happened on Monday night. The suspect is a Sudanese national who arrived in Belfast from Dublin, taking advantage of the CTA to cross the border without being stopped. He applied for asylum and was granted leave to remain three years ago. The stabbing has prompted claims that the CTA leaves a “loophole” in border controls that is being exploited by asylum seekers.
Ryan Henderson, assistant chief constable for the Police Service of Northern Ireland, is about to hold a press conference about last night’s rioting.
Burnham says Waspi women should get 'some recompense' - but later clarifies he's not proposing financial compensation
Andy Burnham is facing criticism after saying that he thinks the Waspi women should be entitled to “some” compensation.
The Waspi women are women born in the 1950s affected by the decision taken by the Conservative government in the 1990s to raise their state pension age from 60 to 65. The Labour government then put it up to 66, and the coalition government then brought forward the dates at which the rises were due to come into force.
Governments always announce increases in the state pension age years in advance, so that people have time to plan, but the 1990s changes were not advertised to the public as well as they could have been and for years Waspi (Women against state pension inequality) has been campaigning for compensation on behalf of women whose retirement planning was thrown into chaos because they did not get proper advance warning of the rise in their pension age.
The Waspi women achieved a huge victory in March 2024 when the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) recommended a compensation scheme that could cost up to £10.5bn.
But the Conservative government refused to immediately accept the recommendation and Labour, despite supporting the Waspi campaign in principle when it was in opposition, ruled out paying compensation on the grounds that it was unaffordable.
At a hustings event on Wednesday, Burnham said:
I’ll stick by the Waspi women because they deserve some recompense for the unfairness.
As Lucy Fisher and Ian Walker report in their story on this for the Financial Times, this pledge has been seen as evidence of Burnham not being financially responsible. They report:
One government figure decried Burnham’s intervention as “pathetic”, adding: “He can’t say no to anyone.”
An ally of Sir Keir Starmer likened Burnham’s economic agenda to that of hard-left former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, and argued that the mayor’s intervention would harm his chances of manoeuvring the prime minister out of Downing Street.
“Keir literally won by not being this version of the Labour party. This is the Andy Burnham that lost two leadership elections. For a reason. And will lose a third,” the person said.
At the time the ombudsman’s report came out, many at Westminster took the view that the recommendation was wholly unrealistic. Those parties most supportive of the Waspi campaign – the SNP and the Liberal Democrats – have tended to be those with little or no chance of running a government that might have to fund a £10bn compensation package.
The Waspi campaign has welcomed Burnham’s comment. Its chair, Angela Madden, said:
Andy Burnham’s continued support for Waspi women is both welcome and hugely refreshing. While some politicians have broken their promises, it takes real courage to speak out and say what millions of people across the country and hundreds of MPs from all parties already know - that 1950s-born women deserve justice.
But others have interpreted this as evidence that, if Burnham were to become PM, he would find it hard to say no to people. The Daily Mail has reported the story under the headline: “Labour’s magic money tree is back!” And Joshi Herrmann, editor of the Mill, a Manchester-based online news website, has posted a message on social media suggesting this announcement confirms his theory that Burnham is not ruthless enough to be a successful PM.
In an interview last week, Burnham rejected Herrmann’s critique. He would not accept that he was only cared about being popular. But he did say he cared about being seen to act with integrity, and that that included keeping promises. That seems to be the reason why he does not want to abandon the Waspi women.
UPDATE: A spokesperson for Burnham subsequently issued a statement clarifying his position. The spokesperson said:
Andy has always recognised the unfair way in which state pension equalisation was introduced.
As mayor of Greater Manchester, he supported Waspi women in the city-region with early access to concessionary travel, providing some recompense to them within affordability limits.
He accepts the final decision has been made in relation to financial compensation but has indicated an openness to considering similar schemes on the Greater Manchester model.
Updated
The Home Office has released more information about the increase in immigration enforcement activity in Northern Ireland mentioned by Hilary Benn in his interview this morning. (See 10.52am.)
It says the number of immigration enforcement raids to detain and remove illegal migrants in Northern Ireland has “increased by 16% (from 2,312 during the last 21 months of the previous government, compared to 2,682 under this government).”
And the number of people detained and arrested for immigration offences “has increased by 30% (from 1,736 arrests during the last 21 months of the previous government, compared to 2,233 under this government).
As a result, around 1,000 illegal migrants have been removed from Northern Ireland inn the past year.
The Home Office says:
The home secretary is investing £3.7bn into immigration enforcement activity over the next 3 years including in Northern Ireland. Investment into enforcement will increase by over 20% by 28/29.
This will see a surge in intelligence-led operations lead by immigration enforcement and Border Force along CTA [common travel area] routes to detect, track down, arrest and remove illegal migrants. Nearly 1,000 illegal migrants have been removed in the last year alone.
Scottish councils face £500m shortfall in operating costs, spending watchdog says
Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.
Scotland’s local councils face a half billion pound shortfall in their operating costs this year thanks to rising costs, lower government funding and higher demand.
The Accounts Commission, the statutory body which patrols the finances of Scotland’s 32 local authorities, said the £529m gap was around 3% of their revenue funding but with much of their spending devoted to fixed costs like wages, the shortfall would hit services.
Although local authorities increased council tax charges by an average of 7.7% this year, and expect to raise £1.2bn from fees and service charges, they would need to cut or reorganise services and head count to find savings.
Their real terms funding for day to day spending from the Scottish government had risen by only 2% this year, the commission added, while funding for capital projects had fallen by 15% in real terms.
Its bulletin on spending found:
Despite a small real terms increase in Scottish government funding for 2026/27, councils still face major risks to their financial sustainability as funding fails to keep pace with rising demand and increasing costs.
Cllr Ricky Bell, resources spokesperson for the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla), said the bulletin had correctly identified the “perilous position” they were in. He said:
Of notable concern, the ‘critical financial pressures’ facing our health and social care partnerships, and real terms reductions in the capital settlement justify and strengthen support for the resourcing Cosla called for through our budget lobbying this year.
The report quite rightly expresses grave concern for local government finance over the medium term, spanning from the Scottish spending review. [We] will continue to advocate for fair and flexible funding for our councils moving forward.
Benn says 1,000 people removed from Northern Ireland over past year by immigration enforcement, and more raids planned
Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrrow, picking up from Aneesa Ahmed.
In his interviews this morning, Hilary Benn, the Northern Ireland secretary, said that 1,000 people had been removed from Northern Ireland over the past year as a result of immigration enforcement and he said that even more checks were planned.
This is what he told GB News:
For over a century, people from the United Kingdom and Ireland have been able to live and work and travel freely across the British Isles [under the common travel area], and every single day here in Northern Ireland, people cross that border to go to work, to shop, to visit friends, to worship, and vice versa.
It’s brought huge benefit to the people of the British Isles, the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, and Ireland.
So, what that means is you need to target your enforcement operation, and we already work very closely with the Irish authorities to prevent abuse of the common travel area.
You’re going to see an increase in that activity, enforcement and raids.
In the last year alone, 1,000 people have been removed from Northern Ireland because they do not have the right to be here, and it is that intelligence-led operation, including on major travel routes, airports, bus routes, train routes, and ports, that is the most effective thing that we can do, because the common travel area underpins, of course, the Good Friday agreement.
MP Kim Leadbeater, the sister of murdered MP Jo Cox, has condemned the riots in Belfast and appealed for people not to “cause more trouble and more problems.”
This comes after a second night of disorder in Northern Ireland, which saw homes set alight, which she described as “absolutely devastating”.
A Sudanese man was remanded in custody on Wednesday over the knife attack in which victim Stephen Ogilvie lost an eye.
The stabbing triggered a wave of disorder in which mobs set homes, a bus and cars on fire, with people targeted based on their race.
Leadbeater said it was not right to “vilify an entire community or an entire group of people who might not look like you do”.
She told the Press Association: “I don’t have the right to tell anybody else what to do, but what I do understand is the pain and trauma of having someone you care about murdered.
“And, you know, it would be really easy for me to be filled with anger and rage, and to want to hate every individual who looked like the individual who took my sister’s life.
“I chose not to do that because that act was his and his alone. And that isn’t what most people in the area where I grew up, and I’m proud to call home, are like. And I will not allow our community to be defined by that.
“And that is the same for any individual who commits such a horrific crime. You don’t then vilify an entire community or an entire group of people who might not look like you do.”
Leadbeater’s sister Cox was shot and stabbed by a neo-Nazi almost 10 years ago, and marked the first killing of a sitting British MP since the death of Conservative MP Ian Gow in 1990.
Badenoch apologises for Belfast knife attacker being granted asylum under 2023 Tory government
Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch has apologised for the alleged Belfast knife attacker, Sudanese 30-year-old Hadi Alodid, being granted asylum under the 2023 government run by her party. She said she believes it was done under a fast-track scheme.
Speaking to Sky News, she said: “I cannot apologise for things that I did not know were even happening – we’re only discovering this now.
“I am sorry that these things happened under a Conservative government, but I need to talk about solutions.
“Apologies aren’t going to fix what is happening in our borders right now, and we spent far too much time trying to point fingers, rather than deal with the problem.”
Badenoch placed the blame of this decision around Alodid’s asylum status on Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman – who are now in Reform.
She said: “I was in the government, and the home secretary and the immigration minister who enacted this policy are in Reform. So as far as I am concerned, every party is culpable.
“I am saying that we’re sorry, we tried a lot of things, people took advantage of our kindness. They exploited our kindness.”
“The civil service clearly, and probably Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick as well, also believed that these people were genuine refugees.”
The Conservative party’s line is that leaving the European convention on human rights will solve the problems they believe are associated with illegal immigration.
Gavin Robinson MP, DUP leader, said borders into the UK need “protecting” more
Gavin Robinson MP, DUP leader, has said borders into the UK need “protecting” more. Speaking on BBC’s Good Morning Ulster, he also said that he believed that there was “less” violence last night than on Monday.
Of the violence, he said: “You cannot raise your concerns about damage to British values and then behave in such an unBritish way,
“Where your neighbours, where your colleagues, where your classmates are sitting intimidated and in fear, are having their homes attacked and their livelihoods destroyed.
“That is totally unacceptable and it is not British.”
Yesterday, he brought up the knife attack during prime minister’s questions. He later added in a statement: “I welcome the prime minister’s agreement to meet and discuss these issues further. That meeting must focus on protecting community cohesion, strengthening border security, restoring public confidence in the immigration and asylum system, and ensuring that the concerns of law-abiding citizens are listened to and acted upon.
“People are tired of warm words and promises. They want to see action. The Government must now demonstrate that it is prepared to defend our borders, uphold the rule of law and take the necessary steps to keep people safe.”
As Belfast News Letter reports, TUV MP Jim Allister also argued the current system between the Republic of Ireland and the UK is having a “deadly impact”.
However, Claire Hanna, leader of the SDLP, accused those calling for a hard border of leaning into “people’s worst fears and anxieties”.
Hilary Benn accuses people of inciting disorder in Belfast after second night of unrest
Good morning. Hilary Benn, secretary for Northern Ireland, has accused people online of trying to incite disorder in Belfast after two days of unrest in the city after a knife attack.
This comes after a second night of violent unrest in the area, where police used a water cannon to disperse a crowd of about 300 people who burned a truck and threw bricks and petrol bombs close to the Sandyknowes roundabout near Newtownabbey, eight miles north of Belfast.
Twelve police officers were injured and 16 arrests were made in the second night of unrest, Benn said. There was video footage of dozens of men dressed all in black and wearing face coverings gathering on Antrim Road, where they could be seen tearing bricks from properties and smashing paving stones with sledgehammers to create projectiles to throw at police.
Rioters attempted to set fire to a derelict property near a petrol station in Newtownabbey, with some throwing petrol bombs at police lines. They could also be seen taking wheelie bins from outside homes and lighting fires in them. Some of these protesters reportedly planned to target a nearby hotel that was believed to host migrants.
These anti-immigration protests, some of which turned violent, started on Tuesday in response to a knife attack. Sudanese 30-year-old Hadi Alodid, of Duncairn Avenue, Belfast, was charged with the attempted murder of Stephen Ogilvie on Monday. He was further charged with possessing a knife in a public place, Kinnaird Avenue, on the same day.
The Guardian’s report from Wednesday night described scenes of demonstrators tearing up a garden fence to use as a barricade and shield – and using tyres, furniture and wheelie bins to start a large fire. A white van was driven into the flames reportedly by a man who left it in gear, and jumped out. Police tried to extinguish the flames.
Now, Benn is accusing people online of trying to incite disorder in Belfast. This comes as figures including Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk have been posting about the riots online – including a list of protest locations posted by Robinson, accompanied by the caption describing the attack as “yet another invader attack on our people”. Later, he claimed that they are “not my protests” and said he was “merely passing on information”.
When asked by BBC Breakfast this morning about the alleged incidents of people’s addresses being shared on social media so that their homes could become targets of potential hate, Benn said: “It is completely unacceptable to direct someone to a particular address because you say, or you think you know, that a particular person lives there.
“The vast majority of people would be very shocked to know that was going on and the social media companies have a responsibility to take down illegal content, particularly when we’ve been seeing circumstances like we have in Northern Ireland recently.”
Also on BBC Breakfast, Benn said that the recent violent outbursts in Northern Ireland are not a true reflection of the country. “This is not what Northern Ireland is about, it is not the true Northern Ireland, it’s a place full of warm-hearted people,” he said.
“We’re talking about small number of thugs engaged in this behaviour and now the eyes of the world are on Northern Ireland and that is why this must stop.”
Benn also said on Sky News that ethnic minority people in the region were concerned whether they would be targeted next, adding: “We’ve had reports of people being stopped in their cars to be asked what their nationality is on their way to work, and this is completely unacceptable.”
Asked whether these were racist riots rather than protests, he said: “Well, if you are targeting people on the basis of the colour of their skin how else can you describe them? That is racist thuggery, there’s no question about it at all.”
The family of the Ogilvie, the stabbing victim, condemned the violent protests and appealed for an end to misinformation. Ogilvie is in hospital having lost his left eye in the attack.
Here is the agenda for the day.
09.30am: Parliament holding a general debate on the legacy of Jo Cox, almost a decade on from her murder
Morning: An adjournment to mark the ninth anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire
Morning: Government responding to second night of unrest in Belfast, and seeing if and how it links to the unrest seen earlier this month in Southampton
5.30pm: Scottish first minister’s questions
