The Defence Secretary's Gambit
On a Wednesday morning in June 2026, John Healey walked into 10 Downing Street carrying a letter that would detonate the most rapid collapse of a British government in living memory. The Defence Secretary had served in Cabinet for barely eighteen months, overseeing Britain's defence posture as Europe watched Ukraine's grinding war and recalculated its own vulnerabilities. Now he was leaving, and his reason was surgical: the government's refusal to commit serious money to rearmament .