Former minister Al Carns has set out his stall for a potential leadership bid to become Britain’s next prime minister with a series of tough policy ideas to tackle the country’s problems that includes putting energy security before net zero.
With no other Labour politician as yet stepping up to challenge Andy Burnham, the clear favourite to replace Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the former Royal Marine officer did not discount being the sole Labour MP to take him on.
Asked if he would rule himself out of standing in a contest he directly answered “no”, because he wanted to “trigger the debate” and to get policy ideas “to really push the system to be as bold and courageous as we can be”, he told the Foreign Press Association.
Mr Carns’ profile has grown significantly after he resigned as armed forces minister earlier this month over a lack of funding for Britain’s military. He quit just hours after the respected Defence Secretary John Healey left his post, furious at Mr Starmer’s refusal to fund the forces. That move played a significant role in leading to the Prime Minister's resignation on Monday.
Some Labour MPs hope Mr Burnham’s Makerfield by-election victory will lead to a rapid “coronation”, with him entering Downing Street by mid-July.
While there has been speculation that someone might take him on, no Labour MP has yet dared to do so. A major rival, former health secretary Wes Streeting, very quickly rowed in behind Mr Burnham on Monday and another potential challenger Darren Jones, Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister, has remained tight-lipped.
While Mr Carns, 46, has only been in politics since the 2024 election, being promoted to a defence minister post within days of becoming an MP, he does bring extensive military leadership experience from 24 years of service in the Royal Marines, including several combat tours of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Welfare reform
During a speech in central London he put forward a series of policy proposals in addition to the energy pledge.
On the welfare state, that accounts for nearly a quarter of government spending and whose reform causes disquiet among many Labour MPs, he argued that there had to be trade-offs and a move towards “hand-ups, not hand-outs” while being honest with the public.
“We've got to be far more open and clear with the population about what we're trying to achieve and how we're going to get there, and the trade-offs we're going to make too,” he said.
If a government could get the “nation behind you and accept that we may have to make difficult choices in the short term” then “the horizon will be brighter in the longer term”.
Energy security first
He argued for a secure energy system so that “if there's a crisis in the next three to five years we can continue to make our economy thrive and give cheap energy to people”.
He then stated that “net zero is the by-product” of energy security. “I'd like to see a narrative change from net zero to actually, ‘how do I lower business energy costs and how do I lower the costs coming out of your pocket to pay for energy in your house?’
“That's got to be the number one priority, not necessarily net zero, net zero will be the by-product of a very balanced transition towards green energy.”
Instead of aiming to simply cut NHS operations waiting lists, he advocated that Britain should think boldly and “aim to become the healthiest country in Europe by 2035”.
British politics was also too “focused on managing decline” whereas the public was looking for “a sense of direction, a sense of ambition and a sense of government”, he argued.
“I still believe Britain's best days lie ahead,” he added.
Burnham views
Asked about his views on Mr Burnham, who he had campaigned for in Makerfield, Mr Carns said he was “an individual who listens” and would “take advice and policy ideas and hopefully drive them forward with pace and great boldness”.
He added that a decision to run against Mr Burnham would be “based on multiple factors” stating that he needed to “see and buy into that vision and [Burnham's] policies and then see where we go from there”.
“I think those policy ideas, the policy platform will be communicated with the next couple of weeks (by Burnham). We need to make sure that Labour MPs buy into that vision. A vision without a plan is a dream and if you don’t have it, it can turn into a nightmare pretty quickly. What is the vision for this country? Do you want it to be the healthiest nation? Do you want it to add an extra 500 billion onto our GDP.”
The decorated former special forces officer used the example of the innovative post-war 1945 Labour government that introduced the NHS and welfare state alongside making Britain a nuclear power, to call for greater defence spending.
“They understood importantly in government that security and prosperity were not competing objectives. They understood that a country worth defending should look after its people and a country that wants to look after its people must be capable of defending itself.”
But he also suggested that legacy projects, that might become redundant in a future war of drones and AI, should be questioned and reviewed, including the GCAP Tempest future fighter programme.
To stand against Mr Burnham, Mr Carns will have to find the public backing of 80 Labour MPs.
