As the dust settles on Reform UK’s by-election upset in Runcorn and Helsby, one man in Westminster isn’t blinking. John Healey, the Defence Secretary and long-time Labour stalwart, was on the ground when the shock result was confirmed, and he knows exactly what it means.
“This is a fight,” he’s telling colleagues, and he’s not just talking about the ballot box.
While Sir Keir Starmer distances himself from the political fallout, Healey is confronting it head-on. As architect of Labour’s Strategic Defence Review, Healey is positioning himself as the embodiment of “hard Labour”, a cold-eyed realist with a campaigner’s instinct and an unflinching sense of duty.
“Never forget to stay political,” he says. “Every seat matters. Every soldier matters.”
A Red Wall Realist
Healey, MP for Rawmarsh and Conisbrough in South Yorkshire, wasn’t surprised by the Reform win. He’s seen the rot in Labour’s old industrial heartlands, and he’s determined not to lose any more bricks from the Red Wall. His style isn’t flashy, but it’s effective. In NATO briefings or constituency backrooms, he’s the same: tie straight, notes read, and never off-message.
A Defence Secretary With a Plan
While critics claim Labour lacks a vision for government, Healey entered the Ministry of Defence with a strategy in hand: “Reset the nation’s contract” with the armed forces.
“We froze their pay. We housed them in slums. We weren’t kitting them out properly,” he says. “It was shameful.”
Now, Healey wants a radical overhaul, from housing to kit, from morale to mission-readiness. He’s pushing for a minimum 3% of GDP on defence, in stark contrast to Labour’s current 2.5% pledge by 2027, which critics say is still too soft.
Wallace’s Warning and Reform’s Rise
Former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has little patience for vague targets and Treasury foot-dragging. “Defence isn’t discretionary,” he warns. “Threat decides spend, not the spin cycle in No. 10.”
Wallace accuses Labour of obfuscation. Healey, the party loyalist, doesn’t challenge the line in public, but behind the scenes, he’s clearly uneasy.
“We’ve got to stop the haemorrhage,” he told me. “We need to rebuild. The alternative is appeasement, or defeat.”
Underpowered, Underprepared
The UK’s fighting strength is a shadow of its former self. The British Army now fields just 70,000 full-time troops, down from 100,000 in 2010. Some analysts say “we’re less capable than Italy.”
The UK defence industry, meanwhile, is mired in bureaucracy. A cross-party inquiry found procurement to be “broken”, with minimal reserves of modern fighting equipment and no large-scale drone strategy, even as Ukraine gears up to produce 4.5 million drones in 2025.
In this context, Healey’s mission is clear: restore credibility to Britain’s armed forces, not just with money, but with hard reform.
The Fight Ahead
With European allies upping their spend, Poland to 4% of GDP, Germany to 3.5%, Britain risks being left behind. Healey knows it. He’s not looking for headlines. He’s looking for readiness.
“This is a new age of war,” he says. “The only alternative to preparing for conflict is losing it.”
