Andy Burnham’s decision to appoint John Healey to the crucial role of chancellor of the exchequer was the rarest of things at Westminster – a genuine surprise. It’s not that the 66-year-old lacked experience or credibility – just that he had not been seen as a likely contender, with all the speculation about who would replace Rachel Reeves centring on more high-profile figures. Healey had flown under the radar since his explosive resignation as Sir Keir Starmer’s defence secretary in June this year. His assessment of the government’s defence investment plan – that it fell “well short of what is required for defence and the country at this dangerous time” – was devastating and undoubtedly hastened Sir Keir’s departure from Downing Street.
But his resignation letter also included pointed criticism of Reeves’s Treasury, which he said had been “unwilling” to “commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country at this time of rising threats”. Now he is in the Treasury hot seat and under pressure to spell out how he will get defence spending up to 3% of national income, at the same time as cutting government borrowing costs and tackling the cost of living. Like his predecessor, he faces the difficult balancing act of keeping Labour MPs happy without spooking the financial markets, while delivering on the government’s key priorities. Never the flashiest of politicians, his early speeches as chancellor have been focused on stressing his commitment to fiscal discipline and cutting the welfare bill, as well as banging the drum for Burnham’s plan to “reindustrialise” Britain.
But he did show his lighter side in a social media video with the prime minister, which saw “Andy and John” bantering about twiglets and scampi fries in the pub., external “I will always stand by my political choices as chancellor, including pork scratchings as the best pub snack,” he revealed on X. What is the Budget and what could be in it? Best thing we can offer young people is a job, not benefits, says chancellor The softly-spoken Yorkshireman has a remarkable record as someone who has been on the Labour frontbench almost continuously since 2001. Born in Wakefield in 1960 and educated at Lady Lumley’s Comprehensive School, Pickering, and Peter’s School in York, he studied social and political science at Christ’s College, Cambridge.
Before entering politics, he worked as a journalist, briefly editing Parliament’s in-house magazine The House, before becoming a disability rights campaigner and trade union official. He is married and has one son. He first came into Parliament in Tony Blair’s landslide general election in 1997 as MP for Wentworth, a former mining area north of Sheffield, which following boundary changes is now Rawmarsh and Conisbrough. He retained the seat with a majority of 6,908 in the 2024 general election, with a Reform UK candidate in second place.
In the early 2000s, he held a string of ministerial posts, including housing, local government in the Blair and Gordon Brown governments. He spent five years at Brown’s Treasury where he oversaw policies such as the child trust funds and attempts to regenerate and devolve power – the Regional Development Agencies, later scrapped by the coalition government. Speaking to the BBC’s Political Thinking with Nick Robinson earlier this month, Healey said: “The Treasury’s a paradox. You have some of the very best and brightest officials in the Treasury, but you have too often a Treasury orthodox that’s a dead hand on dynamic government.” He added that maintaining financial stability was a key function of the Treasury but “also it can and it has to drive economic growth, raise levels of productivity, support business competition, investment for the for the future”.
And he claimed the department “was in denial about the commitment that the UK has rightly made to NATO and to our people” to increase defence spending to 3% of GDP, which would not come until 2034/35 under current plans. “The Treasury still often sees defence as a drain on public spending and not the driver of economic growth that we’ve demonstrated in two years,” he told Nick Robinson. Healey’s other area of expertise is housing. He served as shadow housing secretary when Jeremy Corbyn was Labour leader, despite supporting a failed attempt to oust Corbyn in 2016.
When Sir Keir was elected Labour leader in 2020, he made Healey shadow defence secretary, becoming defence secretary when Labour came to power four years later. Healey was a staunch supporter of Ukraine in its war with Russia and made several trips to the country to meet President Zelensky. At his first meeting with Nato allies, in September 2024, he said he was “confident” Labour could honour a commitment to increase defence spending and “make the decisions that allow us to set out a long-term plan to make our forces better equipped to fight and to deter the threats we face”. Healey also drove investment in housing for armed forces families, with a £9bn spending plan.
Despite his low key style, he proved capable of delivering stern warnings to the UK’s enemies. In April this year, he delivered a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a briefing on “covert” operations by Russian sumbmarines, saying: “We see you. “We see your activity over our cables and our pipelines, and you should know that any attempt to damage them will not be tolerated and will have serious consequences.” Following the announcement of the defence investment plan, he condemned what he called “Treasury trickery” and the lack of clarity on what new money the Ministry of Defence would get. Healey also made clear that he wanted a clear plan to increase UK defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2030.
He is not expected to do that in his first Budget, with key spending decisions set to be unveiled next year. But the tax and spending decisions he does announce on 28 October will still have a huge impact on the success or failure of the fledgling Burnham administration.
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