John Healey (born 13 February 1960) is a British politician who has served as Chancellor of the Exchequer under prime minister Andy Burnham since 20 July 2026. He previously served as Secretary of State for Defence under Keir Starmer from 2024 to 2026. A member of the Labour Party, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Rawmarsh and Conisbrough, formerly Wentworth and Wentworth and Dearne, since 1997. He previously held various junior ministerial positions under prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown from 2001 to 2010.
Born in Wakefield, Healey was educated first at Lady Lumley's School and St Peter's School, York. He studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he received a BA degree in Social and Political Science in 1982. After university, he worked as a journalist for The House and then as a disability rights campaigner. He later worked in communications and as a campaign manager for various organisations and trade unions. Following an unsuccessful candidacy for Ryedale at the 1992 general election, Healey was elected to Parliament as MP for Wentworth in the 1997 general election. He served under Blair as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Adult Skills from 2001 to 2002, as Economic Secretary to the Treasury from 2002 to 2005 and as Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 2005 to 2007. Under Brown, he served as Minister of State for Local Government from 2007 to 2009, and then in a cabinet role as Minister of State for Housing and Planning from 2009 to 2010.
After Labour entered opposition at the 2010 general election, he was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Health by Labour Party leader Ed Miliband. He stood down from the role in October 2011 and returned to the backbenches, then returned to the shadow cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Housing under party leader Jeremy Corbyn from 2016 to 2020. He endorsed Owen Smith in the 2016 Labour Party leadership election in an unsuccessful attempt to replace Corbyn. Following Keir Starmer's election as Labour leader, Healey was appointed Shadow Defence Secretary. During his tenure in the position, he supported Ukraine following its 2022 invasion by Russia, and advocated for higher military spending and closer cooperation with NATO.
Following Labour's victory in the 2024 general election, Healey returned to government and was appointed Defence Secretary by Starmer in his ministry. In this role, he maintained close relations with both the Joe Biden and Donald Trump US administrations, including Pete Hegseth. He resigned from the government in June 2026, citing disagreements with Starmer's reluctance to increase defence spending. Following Starmer's resignation, Healey was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer by Andy Burnham in July 2026.
Early life and career John Healey was born on 13 February 1960 in Wakefield, the son of Aidan Healey, who was the deputy chief physical education officer of HM Prison Service. He was educated at Lady Lumley's School in Pickering and the private St Peter's School, York, for sixth form. He studied social and political science at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he received a BA degree 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. 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. He was appointed as the campaign director with the Trades Union Congress in 1994, in which capacity he remained until his election to the House of Commons. He was also a tutor at the Open University Business School.
Parliamentary career Healey's first attempt to enter Parliament was as candidate for Ryedale at the 1992 general election, where he finished third with 13.8% of the vote behind the incumbent Conservative MP John Greenway and the Liberal Democrat Elizabeth Shields.
In government (1997–2010)
Backbenches 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.
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.
Junior minister 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. Following the election, he was appointed as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Adult Skills at the Department for Education and Skills. On 30 May 2002, he was appointed Economic Secretary to the Treasury.
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. He was appointed Financial Secretary to the Treasury.
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.
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.
In opposition (2010–2024)
Shadow cabinet
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.
Healey came second in the election for the shadow cabinet in 2010, and was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Health. He resigned from this position in 2011 to spend more time with his family.
Return to the backbenches 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.
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.
Corbyn shadow cabinet 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 leadership election. 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."Wentworth & Dearne", BBC News 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.
Starmer shadow cabinet Following the election of Sir Keir Starmer as leader of the Labour party, Healey was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Defence in 2020.
As Shadow Secretary of State for Defence, Healey 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. 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."
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". 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.
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. 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.
Healey voted in favour of British participation in the 2003 Iraq War.John Healey MP, Wentworth voted strongly for the policy Iraq 2003 – For the invasion. PublicWhip. Retrieved 4 February 2024. 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.
Defence secretary (2024–2026)
Appointment and early tenure
Owing to the 2023 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 Conisbrough with 49% of the vote and a majority of 6,908. After Labour's victory at the general election, Healey was appointed Secretary of State for Defence by Starmer on 5 July. Healey visited Ukraine shortly after being appointed Defence Secretary, meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Odesa.
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. 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. 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. 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.
Gaza war