YouSaid · the spoken record

John Healey

lines on the record: 61
first: 2025-10-05
most recent: 2025-10-05
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“There's a different story to the last few weeks from Angela Rayna the reshuffle at Peter Mandelson, Andy Burnham, and that is in that same period you've had a government that has introduced free preschool childcare, which is going to be worth over £7,000 a year to working parents, a government that's tightened the rules on refugee families being able to come to Britain. That's won the biggest British warship contract ever with a £10 billion injection of money into the British economy which will secure over £4,000 for 15 years with the Norwegian”
2025-10-05 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 156. Defence Secretary, John Healey: Is Britain Ready For War? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“For some, they cause anxiety, they do cause fear, they do cause division. But I think for me, we've moved away a large, long way from the fact that the hard right or the populist right can claim ownership of the English or the British flag. And what that tells me is part of the, part for me, the challenge now of being in government is we rebuild a confidence and trust in our country and our government by delivering what people want and doing what we say we will do rebuild a pride in the country as we see Britain again becoming democracy's most reliable ally and leading the changes and reassertion of European security which Keir Starmer is doing and then in the end then We try and rebuild the trust that people can have in their country by making sure that we deliver for them. Look, for me, there is, if I may,”
2025-10-05 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 156. Defence Secretary, John Healey: Is Britain Ready For War? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That tells you you've got an area and a community with a deep pride in the country. If your friend had driven through Rotherham at a time when England were in the Euros, you'd have seen a lot of flags then. So there's a sense of pride that isn't always a sense of... Complaint”
2025-10-05 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 156. Defence Secretary, John Healey: Is Britain Ready For War? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Regards Putin as the best leader that tries to blame NATO for Ukraine's invasion of Ukraine, who wants to have private insurance in the NHS, who's called on Trump to levy tariffs against our country. And when he's challenged by that, he either denies it or changes his position. And he just doesn't have the answers. He will have to sustain this claim to be a credible potential leader of a country for the next four years up to the election. And my concern... That we concentrate on doing our job, which is to deliver the change and what people elected us to do last year. And that's what I'm doing in defence. Because in the end, I think that's the way that we meet the challenge that we all face. And this isn't just a labour challenge, and that is to restore people's confidence in government and trust in politics.”
2025-10-05 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 156. Defence Secretary, John Healey: Is Britain Ready For War? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I mean, I think now what reform and Nigel Farage is doing is capturing a sense of grievance. But I would say, look, it's all anger. It's not answers. And I've watched reform in its previous incarnation as a Brexit, UKIP very closely. You can't live in an area like South Yorkshire and serve it without being close to that sentiment. And Kita Starmer's right. You know, the left has denied some of the senses of concern, deep concern that people have had and dismissed them in the past. He's determined that we don't do that now. But with Nigel Farage, we absolutely will challenge him. We must challenge him. But I've always felt there was something suspect about Nigel Farage. You know, this is a man who...”
2025-10-05 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 156. Defence Secretary, John Healey: Is Britain Ready For War? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What surprises me is that people are seeing this as a new moment. I remember running the 2012 by-election in Rotherham with John Speller. And Farage came once. And from nowhere, UKIP polled 24%. It was a very clear sign that in areas like industrial South Yorkshire that had seen long-term change. some really significant changes after 97 for instance. I remember the huge impact that our New Deal for young people had where we took a windfall tax on the privatized utilities. We put almost £4 billion into that program. And in areas like Rotherham and parts of South Yorkshire, we brought the youth unemployment rate down from plus 20% to low middle single figures. So it's been there for a while.”
2025-10-05 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 156. Defence Secretary, John Healey: Is Britain Ready For War? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Of both 97 and 2024 big sense of mood and appetite for change, 2024 less patience for it, and more amplified grievance that driven a lot by social media, but an amplified grievance that it doesn't just draw in the same way from the immediate personal and local experience that people tended to bring to their perception of how life was for them and their family and their town 30 years ago. And I think so that makes the challenge of government much harder. It makes the challenge of leadership in other walks of life. be it media or business harder people are more impatient the sense of being Failed by the system is more, I think, crystallized in the social media conversations that were clearly not around before.”
2025-10-05 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 156. Defence Secretary, John Healey: Is Britain Ready For War? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's true, and I think The administration of the place now has become an end in itself. It's lost sight of the purpose of the House of Commons, which is to be the forum to represent people and MPs have lost that central place. But in many ways, it is a better place. It's much more mixed. It's much more representative of the country. You can see that in the mix of gender, of race, and indeed actually of political parties and independence now. I think it's more representative of the country. But at times, I think that sense of clear, crystallized purpose that I remember almost 30 years ago when I was elected is sometimes dissipated.”
2025-10-05 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 156. Defence Secretary, John Healey: Is Britain Ready For War? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Whenever an MP of any party wanted to see me, I would always see them. And that dropped away in those first five years as an MP, the ministers in that coalition, particularly the conservative ministers, became almost impossible with some honourable exceptions for backbench MPs. And that's for me, that's a disrespect to the democratic mandate that each and everyone has, and they should have a right on behalf of their constituents to get to me now as a minister, as they did before. And I will always see them if they want to see me, or I will ensure that one of the ministerial team in the defence see them.”
2025-10-05 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 156. Defence Secretary, John Healey: Is Britain Ready For War? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Unsung unseen work in the House of Commons goes on between parties through select committees or party groups, through some extraordinary schemes like the All Party Parliamentary Armed Forces scheme where we've got MPs from all parties in uniform and joining the forces over a period of a whole year real commitment. So that's there. The other thing that was stronger because the presence was required was the connection between and the availability of ministers to MPs. And I'm talking cross-party. And I remember actually it was when your government was first elected in 2010, Rory. Well, I remember for nine years as a minister in our Labour government. And you're right, Alistair, I wasn't in the cabinet, but I was at cabinet by the... The end for the last year or so as housing and planning minister, saw how that worked.”
2025-10-05 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 156. Defence Secretary, John Healey: Is Britain Ready For War? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think the hours and the culture and the traditions Certainly put a lot of Young people, it put a lot of women off, it made it very hard for anyone with a young family. It was particularly hard if you wanted to and felt your roots were in your constituency and you wanted to raise your kids in the constituency rather than in London. My wife Jackie was a single parent for half the week while I was in London. Because we've our homes always been in Rotherham. So those changes are good. The all-party nature of the commons has certainly continued. And some of the best...”
2025-10-05 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 156. Defence Secretary, John Healey: Is Britain Ready For War? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source