1. John Healey stood down from the role in October 2011 and was succeeded by Andy Burnham.
28 Facts About John Healey
2.
John Healey served as Shadow Secretary of State for Housing from 2016 to 2020 under Jeremy Corbyn, and worked alongside Andrew Gwynne, the Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.
3.
John Healey was born on 13 February 1960 in Wakefield, the son of Aidan Healey OBE.
4.
John Healey was educated at the Lady Lumley's School in Pickering before attending the independent St Peter's School, York for sixth form.
5.
John Healey studied Social and Political Science at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he received a BA in 1982.
6.
John 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.
7.
John 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.
8.
John Healey 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.
9.
John Healey was a tutor at the Open University Business School.
10.
At the 1997 general election, John Healey was the Labour Party candidate for Wentworth, which had become available following the retirement of the Labour MP Peter Hardy.
11.
John 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.
12.
On 29 June 2007, John Healey was moved to the Department for Communities and Local Government as a result of a government reshuffle.
13.
John Healey came second in the election for the shadow cabinet in 2010, and was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Health.
14.
John Healey resigned from this position in 2011 in order to spend more time with his family.
15.
In 2015 three Rotherham Labour MPs, Kevin Barron, Sarah Champion and John 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.
16.
John Healey supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Jeremy Corbyn in the 2016 Labour Party leadership election.
17.
In May 2024, John 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.
18.
John 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".
19.
John Healey voted in favour of British participation in the 2003 Iraq War.
20.
John Healey visited Ukraine shortly after being appointed Defence Secretary, meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky in Odessa.
21.
John 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 the need to cooperate with the US regardless of who is inside the White House.
22.
John Healey responded by saying that it was the government's "legal responsibility" to review export licences and to judge "whether there is a clear risk that anything we supply from this country could be linked to a serious violation of international humanitarian law".
23.
John Healey stated that "without fear or favour" the government will subscribe to international law in reference to ICC prosecutor Karim Khan applying arrest warrants against three senior Hamas officials alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
24.
John Healey further stated that failure to recognise the ICC ruling will threaten global "rules-based order".
25.
In October 2024, John Healey signed the landmark Trinity House Agreement with Germany, marking a new era of defence cooperation between the two nations.
26.
John Healey launched a new Defence Industrial Strategy in December 2024 with the intent of prioritising investment in UK-based defence firms, aiming to stimulate economic growth, create jobs, and enhance national security by fostering innovation and resilience within the sector.
27.
John Healey warned on 13 February 2025 that there can be no negotiation "about Ukraine without Ukraine" after United States President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin agreed to begin talks to end the war.
28.
John Healey married Jackie Bate on 25 October 1993 in Lambeth and they have one son.