Defence Secretary John Healey reveals his son has joined the army | Politics | News

Defence Secretary John Healey says he could be forced to send his own child to war after son Alex joined the army reserves.
Alex, who is in his twenties, signed up to become an infantryman following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Mr Healey said: “It was very soon after that he came to me and he came to his mum and said, ‘I want to join up. I want to be a reservist.’ That’s what he’s done.”

The Defence Secretary added: “I can understand better the feeling of the families of those who, I hope it doesn’t happen, but if necessary, I will have as Defence Secretary to commit to conflicts where they may be at risk.”

The Government is expected to confirm plans to increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP after the re-election of Donald Trump as US president stoked fears about America could reduce its commitment to the defence of Europe.

Meanwhile former Defence secretary Sir Ben Wallace has claimed that “momentum has dropped back” on Ukraine.

Sir Ben told the BBC that the UK’s leadership on Ukraine has “started to drop back into the… pack” and said that in order to drive change while in government “you have to really do it every single day”.

The former army officer – who served in the Ministry of Defence under the last three Conservative prime ministers – said that Britain’s stance had brought “lots of Europeans with us”.

His comments come amid uncertainty over the future of US backing for Kyiv after Donald Trump’s election victory this week

Sir Ben told Radio 4’s Today programme: “What has happened is the leadership that Britain showed right from the start has started to drop back into the sort of pack.”