Al Carns
| Al Carns link Website (Military officer, politician) | |
|---|---|
| File:Al Carns.jpg | |
| Born | Alistair Scott Carns 27 March 1980 Aberdeen |
Former Armed Forces Minister Al Carns is tipped as a leadership contender to replace Keir Starmer | |
Alistair Scott Carns is a British Labour Party politician and former Royal Marines Colonel who was parachuted in by the Labour Together think tank to stand at the UK/General election/2024 in Birmingham Selly Oak constituency.[1] The sitting MP, Steve McCabe, who was parliamentary chair of Labour Friends of Israel, feared losing his seat and decided to resign on 28 May 2024, six days after the election was called.
On 4 July 2024, Al Carns was elected Member of Parliament for Birmingham Selly Oak with 17,371 votes, a reduction of 10.5% compared to the UK/General election/2019.[2]
Carns was the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Veterans and People from 2024 to 2025, and was the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the Armed Forces from September 2025 until his resignation as Armed Forces Minister on 11 June 2026. He is tipped as a leadership contender to replace Keir Starmer.[3]
Own words
Resigning as Armed Forces Minister, Carns wrote:
"We owe those who serve the UK the kit to do the job and the loyalty to stand by them when it's done. We are failing on both.
"I’ve spent my whole time in government making that case.
"Number 10 will not listen, so I am resigning as Minister for the Armed Forces."[4]
Pen picture
On 11 June 2026, Paul Knaggs wrote:
"Carns is not a career politician. He is a former Royal Marines colonel, Special Boat Service, Military Cross, Distinguished Service Order, a man who left the military in 2024 having spent most of his adult life in uniform.
"In his resignation letter, he wrote that the plan is neither transformative enough nor sufficiently funded, and that we are asking our Armed Forces to operate in a more dangerous world on 'a budget written for a calmer one'.”
No peacenik
"Carns himself is no peacenik. He wrote that the 'character of conflict is changing faster than our procurement can keep up with'. He has seen, through those who fought in Ukraine, that platforms costing billions can be defeated by systems costing thousands. Read that sentence twice, because it demolishes the entire procurement model.
"If a £3 million drone swarm can sink a £1 billion warship, then shovelling more billions at billion-pound platforms is not defence. It is a wealth transfer from the working class to the arms lobby, with a Union Jack draped over the invoice.
"And no amount of conventional procurement alters the grimmest arithmetic of all. Against a nuclear exchange there is no defence budget, only diplomacy. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something, usually with a NATO summit lanyard round their neck.
"But it is the next passage of Carns’s letter that Westminster will bury, and that we will not:
- 'A strong country is not simply one with capable armed forces'.”[5]
References
- ↑ "The Labour Together Parliament"
- ↑ "Alistair Carns is a Labour Party candidate in Birmingham Selly Oak constituency in the UK Parliamentary general election"
- ↑ "Who is Al Carns? The Scots-born veteran tipped as Labour leadership contender"
- ↑ "I am resigning as Minister for the Armed Forces"
- ↑ "No Defence for Starmer: Seven Ministers Gone"
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