Nato, Britain's defences and the man who says Labour can keep us safe: JASON ... trends now
Healey has one of the toughest jobs in politics – convincing Britain that after the chaos of the Jeremy Corbyn years, Labour can be trusted with the nation’s defences again.
The shadow defence secretary certainly talks a good game, saying the 'first duty of any government is to keep the country safe'. He and Sir Keir Starmer have done their best to ensure there is not room for a cigarette paper between Labour and the Government on Ukraine.
The pair have also adopted a 'Nato-first' strategy that would see the current Government's Indo-Pacific 'tilt' reversed to focus on beefing up defences closer to home. In his speech at Labour's conference next week, Mr Healey will go further by pledging to accelerate a £2billion programme to replenish stockpiles ammunition depleted by gifts to Volodymyr Zelensky's forces.
Meeting in the Shadow Cabinet room at Westminster this week, Mr Healey says the Government was right to prioritise the issue in the March Budget, but adds: 'It's so far not spent a single penny, signed a single contract and not even done the internal preliminary step which is to give the Army, Navy and Air Force a sign of what share they'll get.
'So in government we would immediately apply a tried and tested system to cut the red tape, cut the delay and restock our Armed Forces.'
JASON GROVES talks to Labour's shadow defence secretary John Healey (pictured)
In a newspaper article last month, Mr Healey and the Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy claimed that Labour's commitment to the Trident nuclear deterrent was 'unshakeable'.
His aides are keen to point to polling showing the Tory lead on the issue has been slashed from 33 points in 2020 to just seven last month.
But Rishi Sunak signalled this week that the Conservatives will target Labour on defence ahead of the election. 'Not once, but twice, Labour tried to make a man prime minister who didn't believe in Nato, who would have surrendered our nuclear deterrent and who blames Britain for every problem,' he said.
'Sir Keir Starmer might want us to forget about his repeated support for Jeremy Corbyn, but we never will. You can never trust Labour with our country's security.'
Mr Healey points out that Sir Keir has focused on rebuilding Labour's defence policy, vowing 'Labour will never go into an election again not trusted on national security'. 'I regard the Prime Minister's remarks as frankly beneath his office – feeble, false,' he says. Yet Mr Corbyn remains a sensitive topic.
Mr Healey served in his Shadow
