Who is Dan Jarvis, the new defence secretary replacing John Healey?
Ex-paratrooper described by colleagues as straight shooter has long seemed destined for role but may not get long MPs who know Dan Jarvis are not surprised he accepted the cursed job of defence secretary – even knowing he may last only a few weeks in the job. The former paratroo
Ex-paratrooper described by colleagues as straight shooter has long seemed destined for role but may not get long
MPs who know Dan Jarvis are not surprised he accepted the cursed job of defence secretary – even knowing he may last only a few weeks in the job. The former paratrooper, once touted as a leadership contender, has long seemed destined for that role, having worked his way diligently through ministerial ranks, a South Yorkshire mayoralty and the shadow cabinet.
“He’ll have done it out of a sense of duty,” said one MP who knows him well. But they said he would “no doubt” be hoping that a successor to Keir Starmer would keep him on in the role.
Jarvis’s reputation for calmness will quickly be put to the test. He has stepped into a nightmare situation that could mean accepting a defence investment plan that his departing predecessor, John Healey, and the former armed forces minister Al Carns say is not enough money.
That view is also shared by top brass at the Ministry of Defence and in the senior echelons of the military, making the department extremely difficult to govern. Jarvis will then be expected to turn up at next week’s Nato meetings to defend the UK’s plans to be ready for war, knowing that many experts think No 10 and the Treasury have not provided an adequate settlement .
But rather than mocking his decision to become the most loyal Starmerite of all, as the administration enters its rockiest period yet, Labour colleagues do not appear to blame Jarvis for stepping into Healey’s shoes.
The most criticism that fellow MPs venture about the new defence secretary is that he is of “middling” talent, and they are not entirely clear on where he stands politically, or how he would be different from Healey.
One former minister described him as “as centrist as a person can be” but said he did not involve himself in typical political drama in Westminster. “He’s a bit like John Healey but in fatigues. Straight shooter and in no way a rabble rouser.”
