Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg has said that the resignation of John Healey as defence secretary shows that there is “a vacuum at the heart of government”.
He said on GB News: “If you want peace, prepare for war. That has been the wise advice that echoes down the centuries from the Romans. And now we have a situation where we have a government that says it wants peace but isn’t willing to pay for it, and we have a resignation that is powerful and honourable, but also shows that there is a vacuum at the heart of government.
“If you haven’t already read John Healey’s letter, there is one killer line in it. When he says to the Prime Minister, you have been unable. Unable, the Prime Minister.
“What is the role of the Prime Minister? He is the head of the Cabinet. He is the head of His Majesty’s Government. He controls, he corrals, he organises, hear points, but he is unable. He has all this power at his command. He has the prerogative powers.
“He has the right to advise the king to send the army, the navy, and the air force to war, but he can’t get a penny out of the Treasury, even though he is Prime Minister, because he is First Lord of the Treasury. The Treasury was taken out of commission in the 18th century.
“Walpole became First Lord of the Treasury. From Walpole, the power of the Prime Minister descends as the man in charge of the money, but Sir Keir Starmer is in charge of nothing, because whilst he is unable, the Treasury is unwilling, and we’ve had lots of statements about how defence spending will increase, and we know it’s a dangerous world.
“Look around, look at the news that you’ve just been listening to about what is happening with Donald Trump. Listen to what President Zelenskyy was saying when he was here visiting from Ukraine recently.
“There are threats from Russia. There are threats from Iran. China is bugging the Prime Minister’s car, and our defence expenditure is not increasing in the way that it should, and our equipment doesn’t work, our tanks don’t work, our ships don’t sail, our aircraft carriers break down. Our submarines don’t get out of port.
“It is a catalog of failure, and money is needed to put it right. That’s not to say every pound spent by the Ministry of Defence is spent well, and of course there should be a drive to improve it, but we’re giving hundreds of millions, billions in the end to Chagos.
“We’re going to be spending £400 billion on welfare. Every ne’er-do-well who comes to this country gets money out of the government to live here and gets put up in hotels. We are wasting billions of pounds on things that we should not be doing, and then we can’t secure our borders or secure our land.
“This is a great scandal and it has taken a brave and honourable politician in the form of John Healey to point this out…but if the Prime Minister gives more money, why did he allow Healey to go? I’m afraid the Prime Minister is in checkmate, he needs to remove himself from office, so we can have a government that can be run properly.”