One thing is clear. British politics has yet to rid itself of the torments of the past decade. The resignation of Keir Starmer’s defence secretary, John Healey, and the armed forces minister, Al Carns, indicates that the prime minister lacks cabinet support for his chancellor’s desperately needed budgetary balance. This gives ever greater prominence to next week’s Makerfield byelection, its multiplicity of feuding parties adding to its uncertainty. But its purpose is plain, to enable Andy Burnham to challenge Starmer’s leadership of the Labour party.
Healey is not the first defence secretary to have had to fight a lone battle for his budget. But Starmer’s argument with most of his colleagues is not over policy or principle. It is personal. It reflects the raw ambition of rivals eager to exploit his unpopularity in office. Burnham has said a byelection victory would presage a leadership vote, and it is clear that the party’s paid-up members would probably go for a change. A small town in Lancashire has thus the privilege of staging a Downing Street coup.
