What are we to make of John Healey? ANdy Burnham and his Chancellor, John Healey. John Healey, the former Defence Secretary, was deemed a less contentious choice. Healey faces an intensely difficult environmentIt’s also true that Healey’s first speech in the City hit all the right notes. A survey of 400 scale-up founders with combined revenue of £8bn, by the business groups Helm, finds that 43 per cent expect no change to business conditions under this government while 40 per cent expect things to get worse.