EXCLUSIVE from @oliver_wright Keir Starmer was blindsided by John Healey's resignation as defence secretary because he was far more worried about Ed Miliband and Rachel Reeves   Miliband was on “resignation watch” after he refused repeatedly to meet Starmer to discuss planned cuts to his net zero agenda. The fear was that the energy secretary would use the announcement to quit and publicly throw his weight behind Burnham   Extraordinarily No 10 was also worried about Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, who had been strongly arguing for a much smaller defence uplift of “single figure billions”   Reeves was said to be so angry about the move to take money from other departments’ spending plans to top up defence that she had refused to take part in the process of drawing up the cuts   While her allies said Reeves had worked “constructively” on trying to find the money, tellingly it was No 10, rather than the Treasury, that negotiated cuts to infrastructure budgets.   “It went well beyond what Rachel wanted,” said one No 10 source. “John [Healey] knew how difficult it was and how hard the prime minister worked to get it up to £13.5 billion.” Our weekend read on how John Healey’s resignation blew a hole in Keir Starmer’s survival strategy: Healey’s resignation is deeply damaging for two reasons. First, until now, Healey has been as loyal as they come, resolutely defending the prime minister time and again on the broadcast rounds But far worse was the timing. Starmer’s whole survival strategy was predicated on playing up his national security credentials. The plan had been to launch Dip before next week’s G7 summit at Evian in France and use the event to present Starmer as the man who could take the “big decisions to make the country safe” It was deliberately designed to contrast Starmer with the inexperienced mayor of Greater Manchester, giving Burnham and Labour MPs at least a few second thoughts about an immediate challenge Instead the prime minister heads to Evian with that entire strategy in tatters and a date with President Trump that could be excruciating “The survival plan has been totally demolished by Healey,” a senior Labour figure said. “Starmer’s strongest card was as the man who can take the big decisions to keep the country safe and Healey has accused him of putting the country at risk. It is hard to see how we go from here.” thetimes.com/article/fc89861…

Female Labour MP: Carns is “just another bloke, albeit one who’s probably killed someone with his bare hands... I guess if the Leader of the Free World is building a cage fight on his lawn, maybe we need a special forces cage fight in Downing Street.”

Dan Jarvis MBE MP @DanJarvisMBE has been appointed as Secretary of State for Defence @DefenceHQ.

👀⏱️ Four hours after John Healey resigned, Sir Keir Starmer has not appointed a new Defence secretary. @GBNEWS