ALISTAIR WHO?

Alistair Carns

Alistair Carns is not a name that has graced these pages too often, in fact only once before has his name appeared - as part of the ghoulish club of sick MPs who last year backed both euthanasia of adult human beings and the abortion of full term babies.  He is not exactly a household name and has only been an MP since 2024.  Despite this, he is being talked about as a potential leadership candidate and is reportedly keen on entering a leadership contest, as and when it comes.

Carns is clearly an ambitious guy and has a long track record in climbing the ladder of success.  He is an outlier in the PLP on several fronts - he has served his country, did not attend university and is a working class lad (although he abbreviates his name to 'Al' in order to appear more down to earth).  His meteoric rise through the ranks of the British Army is very impressive.  Having enlisted as a Royal Marine Commando in 1999, he progressed to the Special Boat Service and enjoyed regular promotions up to the rank of colonel in 2021.  He was to be promoted again - to brigadier - in 2024, but instead chose a new career path in politics.  He succeeded fellow Scot Steve McCabe as the MP for Birmingham Selly Oak.

He scaled Mount Everest last year at the age of 45, while he was a junior minister.  He was promoted to Armed Forces minister last September and appears to be keen on keeping up the promotions as he did during his distinguished military career.  Ladbrokes are currently offering odds of 16-1 on Carns succeeding Starmer, odds that are only bettered by Burnham, Rayner, Streeting and Miliband.  A maximum of five candidates can compete in a Labour leadership election, in addition to the incumbent.  However, that is based on an equal set of nominations for each candidate, which is an unlikely scenario.  Mr Carns would probably need a couple of the favourites to drop out if he were to get on the ballot.

His biggest drawback is recognition.  In a recent YouGov poll, Carns polled zero per cent from a sample size of 706 Labour members, compared to 47 per cent for Burnham.  Six other names polled between 31 per cent (Starmer) and one per cent (Mahmood).

How does a man who chose a career fighting in our military end up in a party that despises Britain?  It's not clear as and when he joined Labour, but we do know that he was headhunted personally by Starmer and parachuted into a safe Labour seat in the south of Birmingham.  Again, at odds with his military background, he recently opted to join in criticism of the Raise the Colours movement, which originated in Brum.

He wrote to West Midlands Police last week, making a series of allegations about Raise the Colours activists and suggesting that injunctions could be imposed in order to ban the flying of flags.  His letter can be seen below.

Flag flying in parts of Birmingham, which are not traditionally working class areas or are more ethnically diverse, can be a contentious pursuit.  Woke middle class residents in the Moseley area were outraged to find British flags flying from lamp posts in their community.  They proceeded to tear them down.

A similar backlash appears to have occurred more recently in nearby Stirchley, again another gentrified middle class area.  However, while Carns takes a one-sided approach to lay all the blame with the flag bearers, various videos online suggest that lefty mobs are challenging Raise the Colours and trying to impede their activities.  This has clearly led to street confrontations, which is not a one-sided affair Mr Carns.  And as for claiming that 'many' members of Raise the Colours are 'not from Birmingham', that's incredibly rich coming from an MP who had zero links with the city prior to being parachuted in by Starmer in 2024!

We don't see this self-publicist taking over from Starmer anytime soon, but he's quite possibly one to watch for the future.  Birmingham Selly Oak is one of the few seats that Labour could possibly retain in the event of an electoral thumping, although Carns could face stiff opposition from the Greens.  In the recent local elections, the Green Party took most of the council seats in this constituency.  Seeing as Carns re-enlisted as an army reservist just four months after being elected to Parliament, perhaps he is covering all angles in the eventuality that his political career is cut short...