John Healey

The Right Honourable John Healey MP
Official portrait, 2024
Secretary of State for Defence
Incumbent
Assumed office 5 July 2024
Prime Minister	Keir Starmer
Preceded by	Grant Shapps
Minister of State for Housing and Planning
In office 5 June 2009 – 11 May 2010
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Margaret Beckett
Succeeded by	Grant Shapps
Junior ministerial offices 2007–2009 Local Government 2005–2007 Financial Secretary 2002–2005 Economic Secretary 2001–2002 Adult Skills
Shadow cabinet portfolios 2020–2024 Defence 2015–2020 Housing 2010–2011 Health 2010–2010 Housing
Member of Parliament for Rawmarsh and Conisbrough Wentworth and Dearne (2010–2024) Wentworth (1997–2010)
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 May 1997
Preceded by	Peter Hardy
Majority	6,908 (20.4%)
Personal details
Born	(1960-02-13) 13 February 1960 (age 64) Wakefield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Jackie Bate ​ (m. 1993)​
Children	1
Education	St Peter's School, York
Alma mater	Christ's College, Cambridge (BA)
Website	Official website

John Healey (born 13 February 1960) is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Defence since July 2024. A member of the Labour Party, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Rawmarsh and Conisbrough, previously Wentworth and Wentworth and Dearne, since 1997.

Healey served under Tony Blair as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Adult Skills from 2001 to 2002, as Economic Secretary to the Treasury from 2002 to 2005, Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 2005 to 2007, and under Gordon Brown as Minister of State for Local Government from 2007 to 2009 and as Minister of State for Housing and Planning from 2009 to 2010.

Following the 2010 general election, he was elected to the Shadow Cabinet and was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Health by Ed Miliband. He stood down from the role in October 2011 and was succeeded by Andy Burnham. He also served as Shadow Secretary of State for Housing from 2016 to 2020 under Jeremy Corbyn, and worked alongside Andrew Gwynne, the Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.

John Healey was born on 13 February 1960 in Wakefield, the son of Aidan Healey OBE. He was educated at the Lady Lumley's School in Pickering before attending the independent St Peter's School, York for sixth form.^[1] He studied Social and Political Science at Christ's College, Cambridge,^[2] where he received a BA in 1982.

Healey worked as a journalist and the deputy editor of The House, the internal magazine of the Palace of Westminster, for a year in 1983.^[3] In 1984 he became a full-time disability rights campaigner for several national charities.

Healey joined Issues Communications in 1990 as a campaign manager before becoming the head of communications at the Manufacturing, Science and Finance trade union in 1992.^[4] He was appointed as the campaign director with the Trades Union Congress in 1994,^[3] in which capacity he remained until his election to the House of Commons. He was also a tutor at the Open University Business School.^[3]

Healey's first attempt to enter Parliament was as candidate for Ryedale at the 1992 general election, where he finished in third with 13.8% of the vote behind the incumbent Conservative MP John Greenway and the Liberal Democrat Elizabeth Shields.^[5][6]

At the 1997 general election, Healey was the Labour Party candidate for Wentworth, which had become available following the retirement of the Labour MP Peter Hardy. Healey was elected to Parliament with 72.3% of the vote and a majority of 23,959.^[7]

Healey served as a member of the education and employment select committee from 1997 until he became the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown in 1999.

At the 2001 general election, Healey was re-elected as MP for Wentworth with a decreased vote share of 67.5% and a decreased majority of 16,449.^[8] Following the election, he was appointed as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Adult Skills at the Department for Education and Skills.

At the 2005 general election Healey was again re-elected with a decreased vote share of 59.6% and a decreased majority of 15,056.^[9]

On 29 June 2007, Healey was moved to the Department for Communities and Local Government as a result of a government reshuffle. Shortly after his appointment he assumed responsibility for assisting the recovery from widespread flooding across the United Kingdom.^{[citation needed]}

In a Cabinet reshuffle on 5 June 2009, he was appointed Minister of State for Housing and Planning, replacing Margaret Beckett who had resigned. While Minister of State for Housing and Planning, he was criticised for suggesting that more people renting properties rather than buying their own homes was a good thing.^[10]

At the 2010 general election Healey was elected to Parliament as the MP for the newly created constituency of Wentworth and Dearne with 50.6% of the vote and a majority of 13,920.^[11][12]

Healey came second in the election for the shadow cabinet in 2010, and was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Health.^[13] He resigned from this position in 2011 in order to spend more time with his family.^[14]

At the 2015 general election Healey was re-elected as MP for Wentworth and Dearne with an increased vote share of 56.3% and a decreased majority of 13,838.^[15][16]

In 2015 three Rotherham Labour MPs, Kevin Barron, Sarah Champion and Healey, started a defamation legal action against UKIP MEP Jane Collins after Collins falsely alleged in a UKIP conference speech that the three MPs knew about child exploitation in Rotherham but did not intervene. In February 2017 the MPs were awarded £54,000 each in damages.^[17]

Following the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Party leader, Healey was appointed Shadow Minister for Housing. He supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Jeremy Corbyn in the 2016 Labour Party leadership election.^[18] Following the leadership election, Healey was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Housing in October 2016.

At the snap 2017 general election Healey was again re-elected, with an increased vote share of 65% and an increased majority of 14,803.^[19] He was again re-elected at the 2019 general election, with a decreased vote share of 40.3% and a decreased majority of 2,165.^[20][21]

Following the election of Keir Starmer as leader of the Labour party, Healey was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Defence in 2020.^[22]

As Shadow Secretary of State for Defence, Healey has repeatedly stressed his support for Ukraine in the Russo-Ukrainian war since Russia's invasion in 2022, endorsed the UK's support for Ukraine, and committed to continue Britain's support for Ukraine in any future Labour government.^[23][24][25] In May 2024, Healey visited Kyiv along with Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Lammy and met the head of the President's Office Andriy Yermak and Defence Minister Rustem Umerov. In a joint statement, Healey and Lammy stated: "The next Labour government's commitment to Ukraine will be ironclad, and European security will be our first foreign and defence priority."^[26]

Healey has argued in favour of higher spending on the British military with a larger armed force, closer co-operation and leadership with NATO and European nations over security and defence matters, and for a "comprehensive UK-Germany defence and security pact".^[27][28] Healey has said that NATO will need to do more "heavy-lifting' in Europe, as the winner of the 2024 US Presidential Election is likely to prioritise the threat of China.^[29]

In April 2024, Healey committed to raising Britain's defence spending to 2.5% of Britain's GDP by 2030 and commissioning a strategic review of the threats to Britain and its capabilities.^[23] In June 2024, he and Starmer announced Labour's nuclear deterrent "triple lock", pledging to build four Dreadnought-class submarines to replace Britain's existing Vanguard-class submarines, maintain a continuous at-sea deterrent, and deliver needed upgrades now and in future.^[30]

Healey voted in favour of British participation in the 2003 Iraq War.^[31][32] In 2024, he said that the decision to go to war "wasn't sound at the time" and said the lesson was that military intervention could not have a successful outcome without sufficient diplomatic, economic, and security follow-through.^[32]

Due to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, Healey's constituency of Wentworth and Dearne was abolished, and replaced with Rawmarsh and Conisbrough. At the 2024 general election, Healey was elected to Parliament as MP for Rawmarsh and Conisborough with 49% of the vote and a majority of 6,908.^[33][34] After Labour's victory at the general election, Healey was appointed Secretary of State for Defence by Starmer on 5 July.^[35] Healey visited Ukraine shortly after being appointed Defence Secretary, meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky in Odessa.^[36]

Healey alongside Starmer, attended the 2024 NATO Summit on 9 July, where he told reporters in that Britain will be the "leading European nation" in defence spending and declared that Britain will be "democracy's most reliable ally". Healey said that he acknowledged that the European members of the alliance, have to take on more responsibility in guarding both Ukraine and the west against Russia and also the need to cooperate with the US regardless of who is inside the White House.^[37][38]

Healey supported the government's "root and branch" defence review and hailed it as the "first of its kind" which would consider the state of the armed forces, threats to national security and the defence capabilities needed to address with ultimate the goal of spending 2.5% of national income on defence.^[39][40] Upon taking office, Healey said that problems in the British military were "worse than we thought" after a defence review was conducted by the new government. He noted that "these are serious times" with "rapidly increasing global threats" and said that he wanted to avoid "age-old tactics" by the armed forces over funds to back pet projects.^[41] Following a financial audit conducted by the government following the election, Healey warned of possible cuts on defence spending as "tough choices" lie ahead to tackle the £22 billion "black hole" in public finances.^[42]

On 3 September, the government announced that it had suspended 30 out of 350 export licences to Israel which faced criticism from both politicians and the Jewish community. The criticism was due to the timing of the suspension, as it took place on the same day as the funerals of six murdered hostages were held. Healey responded by saying that it was the government's "legal responsibility" to review export licences and to judge "whether there is a clear risk that anything we supply from this country could be linked to a serious violation of international humanitarian law".^[43][44] Healey stated that "without fear or favour" the government will subscribe to international law in reference to ICC prosecutor Karim Khan applying arrest warrants against three senior Hamas officials alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. Healey also further stated that failure to recognise the ICC ruling will threaten global "rules-based order".^[45]

Healey married Jackie Bate on 25 October 1993 in Lambeth and they have one son.

• John Healey MP official constituency website
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Peter Hardy	Member of Parliament for Wentworth 1997–2010	Constituency abolished
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Wentworth and Dearne 2010–2024	Constituency abolished
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Rawmarsh and Conisbrough 2024–present	Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Jacqui Smith	Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Adult Skills 2001–2002	Succeeded by Ivan Lewis
Preceded by Ruth Kelly	Economic Secretary to the Treasury 2002–2005	Succeeded by Ivan Lewis
Preceded by Stephen Timms	Financial Secretary to the Treasury 2005–2007	Succeeded by Jane Kennedy
Preceded by Phil Woolas	Minister of State for Local Government 2007–2009	Succeeded by Rosie Winterton
Preceded by Margaret Beckett	Minister of State for Housing and Planning 2009–2010	Succeeded by Grant Shapps
Preceded by Grant Shapps	Shadow Minister for Housing and Local Government 2010	Succeeded by Alison Seabeck
Preceded by Andy Burnham	Shadow Secretary of State for Health 2010–2011	Succeeded by Andy Burnham
Preceded by Roberta Blackman-Woods	Shadow Minister for Housing and Planning 2015–2016	Vacant
New office	Shadow Secretary of State for Housing 2016–2020	Succeeded by Thangam Debbonaire
Preceded by Nia Griffith	Shadow Secretary of State for Defence 2020–2024	Succeeded by James Cartlidge
Preceded by Grant Shapps	Secretary of State for Defence 2024–present	Incumbent