John Healey

John Healey ran the Ministry of Defence from July 2024 until he resigned on 11 June 2026, reportedly after losing an internal argument over how large the drone and autonomous-systems budget should be. His time there produced two signature moves: sealing the Skyhammer interceptor contract with the untested startup Cambridge Aerospace, and setting a £4 billion national drone investment target he defended as necessary urgency given what Ukraine's battlefield had shown about the threat.

He was also the minister who told Parliament a drone had struck RAF Akrotiri and that British troops were operating within yards of Iranian strike zones, and on 13 May 2026 he named the platforms Britain was committing to the Hormuz Coalition: Typhoon jets, the destroyer HMS Dragon, mine-clearance vessels and reconnaissance drones, a commitment he had prepared alongside French counterpart Catherine Vautrin at Northwood the day before.

Dan Jarvis took over the defence brief and, on 29 June, published a larger £5 billion drone plan that built on rather than reversed what Healey had started. Three weeks later, Andy Burnham brought Healey back to the Treasury as Chancellor, filling the vacancy Rachel Reeves's departure Left when Burnham reshaped his top team.