Dan Jarvis takes over UK defence after Healey quits over spending

The Ministry of Defence's 2025 Strategic Defence Review said the UK should move to warfighting readiness, follow a NATO-first policy and raise defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, with 3% in the next Parliament if fiscal conditions allow. NATO's Hague Summit Declaration of 25 June 2025 committed allies to invest 5% of GDP annually by 2035, split between core defence and broader security-related spending. Healey's resignation therefore fits a longer post-Ukraine invasion pattern: European governments have accepted larger security ambitions while arguing over who pays, how fast and from which budgets.

Russia's war against Ukraine, US pressure for Europe to carry more defence weight and NATO's higher spending commitments form the backdrop. The UK dispute illustrates a wider Western problem: governments agree that deterrence, air defence, missiles, drones and industrial capacity must expand, but the bill competes with welfare states, debt constraints and electoral politics.

The trigger was Healey's rejection of the Defence Investment Plan settlement shown to him in June 2026. He said it did not put Britain on the spending path needed by 2030, and the government then confirmed Jarvis's appointment on 11 June 2026.