Former armed forces minister Al Carns has criticised the decision to make Dan Jarvis the new defence secretary, suggesting his appointment will fail to solve key problems at the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
Carns resigned last week hours after John Healey’s departure as defence secretary, with both men citing problems with the much-delayed defence investment plan (Dip) as a Nato summit looms. Although the plan had been expected as far back as last year, sources told The Observer that it was rushed through for intended publication on Friday morning.
Healey learned only last Monday about the £13.5bn budget, just £10bn of which was new money – far lower than the £18bn he had been pushing for. With people around him still in the dark as to how the funding shortfall was to be presented on Thursday morning, the defence secretary resigned at lunchtime.
That afternoon, the national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, rang Carns to inform him that Jarvis had been offered the top job, sounding him out about taking on the vacated security minister brief. Sources said they believed Carns had agreed to stay on board; but that evening he also quit, saying the Dip was “neither transformative enough, nor sufficiently funded”.
A government source said: “We wanted to make it work – he wanted to be on TV.”
However, Carns attacked that account of his decision to quit as “spin”, saying it was designed to “neuter my voice… remove the story, and reduce the impact and steady the ship”.
Carns, who served as a Royal Marine commando in Afghanistan and advised three defence secretaries before becoming the MP for Birmingham Selly Oak, also questioned the “logic” of putting Jarvis in the top spot over him.
“You take a guy who spent 24 years in the marines, more than 10 years working in the MoD, and move him into security in order to move a security minister, who has no experience of the department, into defence… talk me through the logic of that?”
No 10 has been approached for comment.
Carns said he would have remained in government if it had suggested another replacement for Healey with experience of dealing with the MoD – which he partly blames for failing to reform procurement and adopt new technologies, particularly drones – as long as there was the “flexibility to rewrite the Dip”.
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Jarvis is now expected to assess the Dip as a priority before next month’s Nato summit. Sources suggest more progress could be made towards the inclusion of drones. No 10 said it remains committed to publishing the plan before the next Nato meeting.
This week’s Makerfield byelection appears to be the catalyst for No 10’s eagerness to publish the Dip, amid concerns that, should he win the seat, Andy Burnham could trigger a leadership contest as early as next weekend. The Greater Manchester mayor has said he would cut welfare to fund defence.
That haste has contributed to a sense of chaos and confusion, including between the prime minister and the chancellor, Rachel Reeves. Sources also claim Downing Street had been banking on announcing a budget of £15bn to support the Dip, with one of them suggesting Reeves thought forcing other departments to cut their budgets to fund defence was the wrong priority before Makerfield.
A Treasury source, however, said this was “nonsense” and that “the chancellor will always do what is right and needed to keep this country safe”.
Asked whether he would run for leader, Carns – who has spoken with Burnham in recent weeks – said: “If someone fires the starting gun, I am not afraid of gunfire [but] everything will be taken on a case-by-case basis.”
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Photograph by Carl Court/Getty