Starmer faces fresh defence setback as Healey quits over spending plans

After the resignations and anger that followed Labour's poor election results a month ago, the Makerfield by-election campaign had quieted dissent inside the party.

It did not take long for fresh signs of unease about Sir Keir Starmer to surface. The prime minister had hoped to use the pause to show direction and delivery, and he presented the Defence Investment Plan as an example of both.

Instead, according to his departing ministerial critics, the episode has become another sign of his difficulty in getting things done. He now faces the task of preventing that judgment from defining his premiership.

The plan, along with an expected announcement on restricting teenagers' access to social media, was meant to give Starmer concrete achievements to contrast with the manoeuvring of potential leadership rivals.

Days before he travels to the G7 summit in the south of France, he faces a new setback. Defence Secretary John Healey resigned on Thursday. In his resignation letter he told Starmer that the proposed level of military spending "falls well short" of what is needed to protect the country.

Starmer's new Defence Secretary, Dan Jarvis, a former soldier who served in Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, will attend a Nato defence ministers' meeting next week and must explain the decision to his counterparts.

Jarvis and Starmer must also find a new armed forces minister after the resignation of Al Carns, another former soldier. Carns gave television interviews on Thursday evening, including one in which he said his job was to "steady the ship."

Potential leadership challengers, including Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and Health Secretary Wes Streeting, are watching events. Carns, while still a minister, told one interviewer that if a leadership contest began, "I'm not scared of gunfire."

Downing Street and the Treasury are also assessing the damage. Officials said they had tried to reach a defence spending agreement that could be presented to the armed forces, to other ministers and ultimately to the public. They failed on the first two fronts.

Starmer's allies say he is dealing with a difficult set of pressures: a weak economy, high taxes, rising benefit costs and calls for much larger defence spending.