UK Armed Forces Minister Al Carns, in his resignation letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, sharply criticized Starmer's method of governing. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.
Carns resigned around eight hours after Defence Secretary John Healey resigned. For both, the key issue was Downing Street's refusal to commit the necessary funds to the Defence Investment Plan (Dip).
However, Carns' letter went much further than Healey's. Carns complained not just about the money allocated to Dip, but also about how the money was being spent. He said he could not support the Northern Ireland Troubles bill.
These are issues you might expect a defence minister resigning from government to raise. However, Carns also suggested that the government was failing across the board – and this is where he sounded like someone pitching for leadership.
Here is the key passage from the letter:
"Too many working people in this country feel insecure even when they are doing everything right. They work hard, contribute, pay their taxes and still feel one setback away from trouble. Public confidence in our institutions is weakening and politics increasingly looks performative while everyday life gets harder.
The machinery of government itself has been left to decay. Decisions that should take days, take months. Departments fight each other instead of the problem. Officials and ministers who know the truth are not always rewarded for telling it. We are trying to govern a more dangerous world with processes designed for a calmer one, and the gap is now showing in the things that matter most.
National resilience is about more than defence in the narrow sense. A strong country is not simply one with capable armed forces. It is one where working people feel economically secure, public services function, energy is resilient, communities are stable and young people can see a future worth working towards.
If my resignation accelerates the transition towards resolution, then the impact will far outweigh the act. We need a new way of governing and we need it now.
For my own part, I will keep arguing for a politics rooted in resilience, seriousness and national renewal. For a country where working people can once again feel secure about the future. And for the service personnel and veterans this government still has a duty to.
The deal this country makes with the people who serve it, in uniform, in classrooms, on building sites, is broken. I'm going to spend my time on the backbenches trying to fix it."
This reads like a critique of Starmer's method of governing. The allegation that under his leadership the government takes too long to take decisions is one that has been made frequently.