John Healey Becomes the New U.K. Defense Secretary

When Grant Shapps lost his parliamentary seat in the U.K. elections yesterday, he was immediately out as defense minister. His replacement is John Healey, who has been for the last four years the shadow defense secretary for Labour Party leader Keir Starmer. According to UK Defence Journal website, his parliamentary career, which began in 1997, has seen him back the invasion of Iraq and more recently criticize the Tory government’s plan to reduce the size of the Army to 72,500 by 2025. Labour has said it will remain committed to NATO and the U.K.’s nuclear deterrent, and Healey has consistently voted for replacing the current fleet of Trident-armed submarines with a new nuclear weapons system.