Al Carns has launched a stinging attack on Britain’s defence plans after quitting Government, claiming he was kept away from key spending talks despite his military experience and revealing he formally met Sir Keir Starmer in No10 just once in two years.
In an interview with GB News Political Editor Christopher Hope, the former Armed Forces Minister set out two reasons for resigning: defence funding and the treatment of veterans.
“I resigned for two reasons, really,” Mr Carns said. “The first one was I didn’t think the funding settlement or the defence investment plan was transformative enough, and the second one was because of the Legacy Act, and I want to make sure that we protect all our armed forces, including our veterans, once they have served.”
The former Royal Marine said he would now fight from the backbenches for the issues that pushed him out of Government.
“I’m now on the backbenches and I’ll fight just as hard as I did in government for the things I care about,” he said.
Frozen out of defence talks
Mr Carns, a former Royal Marine, made clear his frustration at being kept away from the Defence Investment Plan, known as the DIP, despite his 24 years of military experience.
“I was never included in the DIP. I got into it in the last two weeks. And when I had a look at it, I didn’t think it was transformative enough,” he said.
Asked why he had chosen to resign now, he pointed again to being shut out of the plan.
“I’ve 24 years’ experience and probably more combat experience than most,” he said. “And I wasn’t included in that and I was pretty grumpy about it.”
He also revealed how little direct access he had to the Prime Minister. “I’ve sat in the last two years, I’ve been formally in Number 10 to speak to Keir Starmer once,” he told GB News.
‘Buying for the last war’
Mr Carns warned that Britain was still preparing for conflicts of the past while its enemies prepared for the future.
Pressed on his warning that the UK was “buying for the last war while our adversaries arm for the next one”, he said the war in Ukraine had shown how quickly military technology was changing.
“The change in Ukraine is moving so fast, unbelievably fast,” he said. “Every two years, it doubles in capability.”
He called for more defence money to be directed towards new battlefield technologies.
“I want to see a higher percentage of uncrewed systems, AI, data,” he said. “Data is the new gunpowder, and we’ve got to move that forward if we’re going to win the next war.”
Mr Carns also demanded tighter discipline in defence procurement.
“We must ensure every pound of taxpayer money is spent in the most effective capacity, in the most efficient way, and we don’t waste any more money.”
Veterans and the Legacy Act
Turning to his second reason for quitting, Mr Carns said the Government’s approach to Northern Ireland legacy cases risked creating a “hierarchy of truth”.
“My view is the independent commission should be the only body to seek truth, reconciliation and justice,” he added that the system should avoid dragging elderly veterans back through the courts.
“So we don’t drag our veterans back to court. And importantly, we don’t rewrite history. Ninety per cent of all the casualties in Northern Ireland were caused by who? By terrorists.”
Mr Carns insisted the Armed Forces should still be held to the highest legal standards.
“We will hold our armed forces to the highest level of legal scrutiny,” he said. “I’m not going to shy away from that.”
But he said he did not want to see “70, 80-year-old veterans” brought back before the courts, and accused Republicans and Sinn Féin of trying to use politics to achieve what they had failed to achieve through violence.
Starmer ‘needs to stay’
Despite his resignation, Mr Carns said he was not calling for Starmer to go.
Asked directly whether the Prime Minister should go, he replied: “No, the PM needs to stay. We need to steady the ship.”
He described Starmer as “honest” and “a good man”, but said the Government needed to move much faster on defence.
Asked who was to blame for the spending row, Mr Carns said responsibility lay with both the Treasury and the defence plan itself.
“It’s a combination of both,” he said. “One, we need to find more money. That’s the Treasury, that is the system. “The second one is that the defence investment plan was never transformative enough to convince people that the money was going in the right place.”
Future plans
Mr Carns ruled out launching a leadership challenge, but left the door open to serving again.
“Throughout my career, I’ve always had a saying, always run to the sound of gunfire,” he said.
“So I’ll always try and help wherever I can, whatever job that may be, maybe a junior ministerial role, maybe any role across government.”
He added: “As a backbencher now, I’m going to continue to fight for the things I really care for. And I can speak frankly because I’m not in the Government anymore.”
The former minister said his resignation was a matter of principle.
“Politics is what you think, but it’s also how you feel,” he said. “And I’m not going to change my principles for anybody or anything.
“I want to take this country by the scruff of its neck and make it great again and move it in the right direction.”
