Defence Secretary John Healey resigns and calls out Rachel Reeves

[Fillies4DeclanRice]

John Healey has become the latest government minister to resign, basically saying he cannot do the job of keeping the UK safe because Labour's economic model is in such a mess.

His resignation letter effectively says the government needs to spend far less on welfare benefits and net zero, and start taxing less and spending more on defence.

This is total chaos now.

what, like prison camps? I gather that North Korea know how to do that well.

In the express they have published the entire resignation speech.

They could offer them a choice - take the job offered or do national service. No doubt a diagnosis of anxiety or something else to keep them out of work would ensue.

There was absolutely no need to give UC claimants an above inflation rise in April. If this government don't get welfare under control they will bankrupt the UK.

When it is a strong wind wind turbines have to be switched off because they can only cope with moderate wind.

Agreed.

Also:

Make sure the big corps are paying their fair share - Starbucks, Google, Facebook etc

Ensure that No one is better off on benefits than they would be if working

No PIP for ADHD / not being able to leave the house due to anxiety / being massively overweight

Bring back the 2 child cap,

Tax on any benefits received over 12-13k (like every other tax payer when they earn over that amount),

Tax the full range of incomes more, like they do in Scand so it's not too top heavy and everyone pays (equality),

Stop the net zero bullshit. The UK could sink into the sea tomorrow and there would be only a negligible affect on GW. Stop bankrupting us for nothing (well for your own pockets), Ed Milliband and fat cat friends.

They could stop giving money to all but the most severe cases of autism etc Some families are claiming for several children, with various conditions bumping up their income to far more than those get in full time work,some with more than one job. I’m not referring to to those with severe disabilities

No. why do you equate national service with prison camps in North Korea? Bizarre

Europe: Nine NATO members implement mandatory military conscription: Austria, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden. Sweden, Norway, and Denmark also apply this service to women. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Yeah, this is one of the comms issues. No one has 'paid into it'. The link people think there is between contributing NI and receiving state pension later is one of the biggest mistakes many governments have made in continuing to allow people to think. It's so annoying that they've not made some changes to address this.

The contributions I pay now, basically pay for the current pensioners to receive state pension. It's not money going into a savings account to pay out for me later. But I totally get why some people think that, and governments have allowed people to think that.

We need to reform pensioner benefits but no one will do it.

I think we all agree that people with severe mental, and or any physical disabilities should get the benefits needed.

My son is a military officer. Last thing he wants to deal with is a bunch of grumpy conscripts to command. How much would you trust forced soldiers to protect you?

Everyone wants welfare cuts for other people.

^ That.
Actual spending distribution in 2024, if anyone cares. Can you see the bit that means unemployment benefits?

I'd pay benefits to pensioners, the physically disabled, and or the significantly mentally disabled, all day long, above anyone else.

Think they should be looking at families on UC being more than those in work and those who are not ever required to look for work! I think the state pension should be means tested on income. The triple lock for those eligible should remain bearing in mind the pension isn’t much anyway, and most pensioners don’t have the chance to increase their income eg, overtime, bonuses etc, and no the answer is not to take in lodgers.

But national service was the making of many young men like you describe !

I think you’d struggle to find hard evidence to back that up.

The best time to plant a tree was 20 year ago.
The next best time is today.

Well yes, especially when they invite you to pay in more, extend the timeframe for people to do so, or to see your forecast. It is easy to see how people feel they have paid into something they will then get the benefit of later on.
The idea was always sold that you are paying into your state pension. Not that you were contributing in some sort of generalised nothing to do with a state pension way.

It’s not ‘taken away’, what an odd phrase to use.

You use your own money to pay for your own care. Self funders are free to choose the best and most appropriate nursing home in the best location for them and their family. I hope that we’d all agree that everyone needing residential care would have access to the best provision but
the system can’t work that way. And yes, my elderly, now late, relatives were all self funders as were their fellow residents and I was very happy for the money to be used in that way.

I'm so intrigued by the conscription system mentioned in some places.

Only the fit, about 33%, get drafted in Sweden (ticket out = be unfit).
Pay money in Greece to never have to serve. (Common People plays in my head)
Any system will have get out opportunities, especially for the rich.

To reduce welfare spending you need to target pensioner benefits

Welfare needs to be cut.
We can't have worklessness being endemic.
People need to work.
We can't import people to do the shit jobs. Someone already here needs to be doing that job.

Anyone without a job currently from overseas - on a work visa - can be asked to leave.
We don't have the money to keep people here and keep them healthy.
We need to get strict on asylum.

Parents of students have come over and sought asylum because they have medical conditions that would get no health care back home.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/06/21/asylum-seekers-allowed-stay-uk-high-blood-pressure/

An elderly Sri Lankan couple won the right to stay in the UK after claiming that treatment for high blood pressure in their home country was “inadequate”…

This is actually a symptom of the UK being so absolutely fucked over right now.
Stop this nonsense.
Send them back.

We are not responsible for the whole world.

The majority of welfare spending is on pensioners. You would have to start cutting that if you want to free up money for defense. Or we could raise taxes

No one wants to hear that though.

A lot of people also haven't figured out yet that Russian subs in the North Sea could wreak havoc on our power supply by cutting interconnectors and destroying power transmission infrastructure, as well as gas pipes and internet cables. We wouldn't know even who did it.

And if all our subs/destroyers are in refit/unable to put to sea ...

IMO we would be better off having larger numbers of diesel subs (we don't need the range of nuclear) to guard against this rather than nuclear.

It's another example though of how our defence requirements are changing rapidly, the money required to address these changes in requirement obviously needs to be increased rather than decreased.