Keir Starmer rocked by third resignation as Labour 'dark horse' quits over Armed Forces 'failure'

Sir Keir Starmer has been rocked by a third resignation as a Labour "dark horse" quit following Labour's Armed Forces "failure".

Just hours after Defence Secretary John Healey resigned, Mr Carns accused the Prime Minister of "asking our Armed Forces to operate in a more dangerous world on a budget written for a calmer one".

Earlier in the evening, Mr Healey's Parliamentary Private Secretary quit her Government role in another damning resignation letter over the state of Britain's defence spending.

Pamela Nash, MP for Motherwell, Wishaw and Carluke, told Sir Keir Starmer that Labour "must do better".

In his resignation letter, Mr Carns wrote: "While I had no hand in the Defence Investment Plan, that distance does allow me to say plainly that it is not built for the threat we face.

"It is neither transformative enough nor sufficiently funded. We are asking our Armed Forces to operate in a more dangerous world on a budget written for a calmer one.

"I have sat in the rooms, seen the assessments, and spoken to the commanders who will be asked to do more with less, and I cannot in good conscience stand at the despatch box and defend a level of investment I know to be inadequate to the task.

"A serious country funds its defence to meet the threat it actually faces, not the threat it wishes it faced."

Amid fervent leadership speculation, the former Armed Forces minister is widely touted as a potential "dark horse" candidate in a rumoured race to oust the Prime Minister from No10.

Before entering politics, the MP for Birmingham Selly Oak was previously a Royal Marines Commando and later became a colonel. He completed five tours in Afghanistan.

Mr Carns further condemned the "serious problems" presented in the Northern Ireland Legacy Bill.

He continued: "I have worked to fix the Bill from the inside, but it remains unfit for purpose. It risks failing the very veterans it claims to protect.

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"Men and women I served with, those I buried friends alongside, people who did their duty under conditions most individuals in Westminster will never have to imagine.

"I set out the changes I believed were necessary, and the lines which I could not in good conscience go beyond. Those lines have not been accepted."

He added that he "no longer trusts the process", explaining that he has "run out of room to argue this case honourably from inside Government".

"These two failures are the same failure," he said.

"We ask soldiers to fight for this country. In return, we owe them the kit to do the job and the loyalty to stand by them when it's done.

"We are failing on both.The same failure of seriousness runs through how this country treats the people it asks the most of, in uniform and out of it."

The veteran also laid into Labour's dwindling relationship with the working class, echoing criticism from the likes of Andy Burnham and Angela Rayner.

"Too many working people in this country feel insecure even when they are doing everything right," Mr Carns lamented. "They work hard, contribute, pay their taxes, and still feel one setback away from trouble."

He slammed politics appearing "increasingly performative while everyday life gets harder", adding: "Decisions that should take days, take months. Departments fight each other instead of the problem."