Armed forces minister quits after Healey exit as defence funding row deepens

2 hours agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on Google Joshua NevettPolitical reporter PA Media Al Carns said the government's defence plans aren't "sufficiently funded" The armed forces minister has followed Defence Secretary John Healey in quitting the government in a dispute with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer over funding for the military. Al Carns resigned on Thursday evening, telling Sir Keir that the government's defence investment plan (DIP) was "neither transformative enough nor sufficiently funded". It came after Healey resigned in a scathing letter warning that the level of military spending proposed "falls well short" of what's needed to protect the UK. Dan Jarvis, the security minister and a former British Army officer, has been appointed to replace Healey in the cabinet role. Sir Keir has yet to respond to Carns' exit. In his response to Healey's resignation, the prime minister said he was "proud of our record on funding", adding the defence funding plan "will provide the resources our military needs to keep us safe". Only an hour or so before his resignation, Carns had suggested he was willing to wait until the DIP was finalised before considering his position in government. But shortly after strikingly candid interviews with Sky News and the BBC, he posted his resignation letter to X, writing he could not defend "a level of investment I know to be inadequate to the task". Labour MP Pamela Nash has also quit as Healey's parliamentary assistant at the Ministry of Defence (MoD). In her letter to the prime minister, Nash said "delays and difficulties with securing the necessary funding to progress the defence investment plan has been the latest issue that is damaging to the trust of the public in us". The BBC understands Healey had asked other defence ministers to remain in post. The resignations have left the government reeling and have further sapped the authority of Sir Keir, whose long-term future in Downing Street was already in doubt. Healey's decision to quit is a particularly big blow to Sir Keir, given the former defence secretary was one of the prime minister's most loyal cabinet allies. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called Healey's decision "the honourable thing" and said it was "shocking" to see his letter suggesting current defence spending could leave troops at risk. It also comes a week before a crucial by-election in which Labour candidate Andy Burnham is seeking a return to Westminster to enable him to challenge Sir Keir for the premiership.