New Chancellor John Healey drafts in top Remainer - and Jack Straw's son - as his chief of staff

By GREG HEFFER, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT Published: 13:13, 28 July 2026 | Updated: 13:25, 28 July 2026 Chancellor John Healey has drafted in a top Remainer as his chief of staff as he puts together his team of aides, it has been revealed. Will Straw, the son of former Labour home secretary Jack Straw, is set to be the most senior of Mr Healey's advisers in the Treasury. An insider told the New Statesman that Mr Straw's appointment was viewed as a 'coup' for the new Chancellor. The 45-year-old is currently CEO of the King's Trust International charity, which aims to tackle the crisis of youth unemployment across the globe. He was previously executive director of Britain Stronger in Europe, which was the official Remain campaign at the 2016 EU referendum. Mr Straw was awarded a CBE for political and public service in David Cameron's resignation honours list. This was despite the failure of the Remain campaign, which led to Lord Cameron's downfall as prime minister. Mr Straw is familiar with the Treasury having once worked as a senior policy adviser in the department when Gordon Brown was Chancellor. Chancellor John Healey has drafted in a top Remainer as his chief of staff as he puts together his team of aides Will Straw was previously executive director of Britain Stronger in Europe, which was the official Remain campaign at the 2016 EU referendum He previously had ambitions of elected office himself and stood as Labour's candidate at the 2015 general election in the Rossendale and Darwen constituency in Lancashire. But he was defeated by Tory incumbent Jake Berry. Mr Healey returned to Government as new PM Andy Burnham's Chancellor little more than a month after he dramatically quit as defence secretary in Keir Starmer's administration. When he resigned, Mr Healey fumed at Sir Keir for being 'unable' to find the billions of pounds needed to properly fund Labour's Defence Investment Plan (DIP), while he claimed then-Chancellor Rachel Reeves was 'unwilling' to do so. He also raged at Sir Keir and Ms Reeves' failure to commit to a timetable for spending 3 per cent of Britain's GDP on defence. In an explosive resignation letter, Mr Healey said it was a mark that needed to be reached by 2030. Mr Healey is now under pressure to find the money to meet that commitment himself, as well as to fill a near-£5billion black hole in funding for the DIP that he inherited from Ms Reeves. Treasury documents released alongside the DIP last month set out how just £10.3billion of the cash had been found via savings across Government departments. The papers said the remaining £4.7billion 'will be confirmed at Budget 2026, in a fair and balanced way', creating a huge black hole in Mr Healey's first fiscal showpiece later this year.