Carns is asked about the leadership of Prime Minister Keir Starmer and whether he can deliver.

The former armed forces minister says he thinks that Starmer is a good man and it is up to him to prioritise his government's spending.

Carns says there needs to be an honest conversation with the population about the threats that the UK faces, and the defence investment plan was not transformative enough.

He says every penny must be spent in the most efficient way, and the UK needs to find the right resources in an increasingly unstable geopolitical world.

Former Armed Forces Minister Al Carns says the reason he quit was "quite simple".

He didn't think the proposed funding settlement was correct for defence, he tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme, and he didn't agree with the defence investment plan.

Carns describes the plan as "looking at how to fight the last war rather than the next one".

He says there was a lack of innovation and lessons learned from the ongoing war in Ukraine.

We're about to hear from Al Carns on BBC Radio 4's Today programme - he resigned as armed forces minister yesterday in a row over defence spending.

Tap watch live to follow the interview at the top of the page.

Business Secretary Peter Kyle says he was sad to see his colleagues John Healey and Al Carns resign and adds the government is determined to deliver a defence review "for the moment we are living in".

He tells BBC Breakfast the government is setting out the "hugely challenging task" of defence for the country for the next 10 years.

"When you see the plan you will see we put a lot of effort into getting that right," he says.

Quizzed on whether he has seen the plans, Kyle concedes he has not seen the full review. He is then asked why he thinks Healey and Carns resigned after seeing the full plans.

Kyle repeats that the plan will deliver and points to some of the government's achievements, which he says includes 10,000 defence contracts being signed, a historic increase in defence funding and an increased capacity of armed forces.

He says the new Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis is a "highly decorated officer" and has spent a lifetime preparing for the role.

Kyle adds that the defence plans will be released very shortly before the Nato summit.

He explains that the government is years ahead of what it said it would achieve and defence spending will reach 3% in early part of next parliament, and 3.5% by 2035.

Former Cabinet Secretary Simon Case says John Healey has expressed "deep frustration" that the government is not moving forward with its plans fast enough.

Case, who has worked closely with Healey in the past, tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme that he spoke briefly with the former defence secretary after his resignation yesterday.

Asked about Healey's choice of words - that the government is "unwilling" and "unable" to commit the funding needed for defence - Case says placing blame on the Treasury and the chancellor makes him "nervous".

The story of the relationship between Numbers 10 and 11 is "as old as time", he says, but at the end of the day it is the PM who is responsible for setting priorities.

Case says he would "encourage him [Keir Starmer] to seize the reigns of power and use them".

Damian Grammaticas
Political correspondent

Image source, PA Media

New Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis was a former officer in the Parachute Regiment, with an MBE for his service in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Now, he finds himself amid the politically charged battles over the nation’s future military funding.

His predecessor, John Healey, said in his resignation letter yesterday that the uplift envisaged in the Defence Investment Plan fell short of what was required, warning Russia could attack Nato within four years.

The Armed Forces Minister Al Carns, a former officer in the marines who also quit, said “we ask soldiers to fight for this country, in return we owe them the kit to do the job”.

He said Sir Keir Starmer’s government was “failing”, avoiding tough decisions.

Sir Keir said the plan, which is yet to be finalised, would "provide the resources to keep us safe” but had to be “sustainable”.

Reform UK's Deputy Leader Richard Tice has described John Healey's resignation as "principled but very shocking".

He tells BBC Breakfast that the government has made the decision to "fund benefits not bullets and welfare not warfare".

He says that the resignations are the "final nail in his coffin" and repeats calls for Starmer to step down.

Tice adds that Al Carns' resignation was "even more eviscerating" and that he believed it was "pretty extraordinary" that Carns appeared to say that the government was "buying kit for the last war not the next war".

He adds that Reform would "scrap net stupid zero," would not pay voluntary interest on all Bank of England money, and would not pay welfare for overseas nationals to fund defence.

Image source, PA Media

Defence Secretary John Healey and Armed Forces Minister Al Carns quit yesterday in a dispute over funding for the government's defence investment plan.

Healey said the level of spending proposed by the PM "falls well short" of what's needed to protect the UK, while Carns said the plan was "neither transformative enough nor sufficiently funded".

But what is the investment plan?

• Last year, the government published a Strategic Defence Review which outlined a shift towards "warfighting readiness" and pledged billions in extra spending
• The defence investment plan is supposed to set out how this defence spending will be funded

Internal wrangling has been rumbling on for months following multiple delays to the defence investment plan, originally due last autumn.

Now, reports have suggested the government was preparing to announce a £13.5bn funding increase for the Ministry of Defence over the next four years, less than the extra £28bn requested by the department.

"John [Healey] has effectively said: I will not preside over the death of the Royal Navy," Tugendhat adds.

He says Healey's letter effectively accuses the PM of not equipping the armed forces effectively for another two to three years, which would mean "no more ships", "no more planes".

The "absolute killer" in both the resignation letters yesterday is that they make clear that in a "straight fight" between No 10 and the Treasury, "it wasn't the leader who won, it was the accountants", Tugendhat says.

Asked where the money should come from, he says Carns' letter is clear in its criticism of the ways defence procurement and the Treasury work. Tugendhat accuses the government of failing to tackle spending in other areas like welfare.

Former security minister and Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat says John Healey "couldn't have been clearer" in his resignation letter yesterday, saying Starmer's government was "unable" or "unwilling" to defend the country.

This is "about as damning as it gets", Tugendhat tells BBC Breakfast.

Offering his own interpretation of Healey's letter, he says it effectively says: you saw the same threats as everyone else and promised you'd prepare for it, but you have "failed to live up to this".

John Slinger, the Labour MP for Rugby, has defended Sir Keir’s over the defence funding row.

When asked whether yesterday's events changed his view that Starmer should remain in Number 10, he said "absolutely not".

He said that while he "hugely" respects John Healey, the government had delivered the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War.

Speaking to Jane Hill on BBC Radio 4's the World Tonight, he said Labour "inherited a 2..3% (of GDP) spending on defence, we are already at 2.5% thanks to the leadership shown by Keir and John Healey and we’re moving to 2.6% next year, and we’ll go further".

He also backed the PM’s selection to replace Healey as defence secretary: "Dan (Jarvis) I'm sure will do an excellent job to build on the excellent work of John and others."

General Sir Richard Barrons, co-author of the Strategic Defence Review, spoke to BBC Newsnight following the resignations over the Defence Investment Plan.

"We live in a really, really dangerous world which presents potentially existential challenges to the existence of the UK as a functioning country."

He says he would "release the triple lock in order to put more money back into things like defence."

He continued: "There's no point me having a glamorous, comfortable retirement if the country that I bequeath to my children is at great military risk."

The triple lock guarantees that the state pension goes up each year in line with either inflation, wage increases or 2.5% - whichever is the highest.

Chris Mason
Political editor

Image source, PA Media

After the spray of resignations, fury and anger a month ago following Labour's calamitous election results, the Makerfield by-election campaign had put a temporary cork in the bottle of the party's dissent. Or so we thought.

It turns out we didn't have to wait to find out if Andy Burnham would be returning to Westminster before the bubbles of anxiety about Keir Starmer would be visible again. The prime minister – who had sought to seize this brief opportunity to project direction and delivery – saw the Defence Investment Plan (DIP) as a case study in both.

Instead it's become the latest example – according to his departing ministerial critics – of his inability to get things done. He has his work cut out now to stop that becoming the epitaph to his premiership.

Read more of Chris's analysis here.

Image source, PA Media

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is under renewed pressure after Defence Secretary John Healey and the armed forces minister quit the government yesterday.

The resignations came over a dispute about funding for the military. Here's what happened - and what we can expect today:

• Defence Secretary Healey resigned on Thursday in a scathing letter warning that the level of military spending proposed by Sir Keir "falls well short" of what's needed to protect the UK
• Al Carns resigned in the evening, telling Sir Keir the government's defence investment plan (DIP) was "neither transformative enough nor sufficiently funded"
• Labour MP Pamela Nash quit as Healey's parliamentary assistant at the Ministry of Defence (MoD), while MP Rachel Hopkins also followed them out the door, according to the Press Association
• Dan Jarvis, the security minister and a former British Army officer, has been appointed to replace Healey in the cabinet role

• The prime minister says he is "proud of our record on funding", adding the defence funding plan "will provide the resources our military needs to keep us safe"
• We're expecting to hear from Al Carns on BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning, and former security minister and Conservative MP is also about to appear on the programme shortly

Stay tuned for all the latest reaction and analysis.

Image source, Ravi Soodi / Home Office

The UK has a new defence secretary - former Security Minister Dan Jarvis.

His appointment comes after an incredibly turbulent day for the government, starting with the resignation of former Defence Secretary John Healey.

In a letter to the prime minister, Healey said he had "no other option" but to resign due to the government not giving the military the money it needs in the financial settlement for the defence investment plan.

The plan - yet to be released - is set to outline government defence spending over the next decade. Starmer has insisted the plan would provide the resources the military needs "to keep us safe".

Despite his departure, Healey asked defence ministers to stay in their posts.

But a few hours later, Armed Forces Minister Al Carns followed suit, saying the plan wasn't "built for the threat we face" and wasn't "sufficiently funded".

The latest departures mean seven ministers have now stepped down from the government in the past month.

We're now pausing our live coverage.

Jarvis has lots of warm relationships in the Commons, but what a job he takes onpublished at 22:41 BST 11 June

22:41 BST 11 June

Chris Mason
Political editor

An extraordinary day. And one of many in recent weeks and months.

The appointment of a new defence secretary, Dan Jarvis - a former mayor of South Yorkshire, MP in Barnsley, and a former soldier who served in Kosovo, Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Like many MPs who've spent time in the armed forces, he has lots of warm relationships across the chamber, particularly with others who have also served in the military.

But what a job he takes on, given the withering assessment of his predecessor, John Healey.

Here was a man who was defence secretary this morning, suggesting that the government's plans as they stand might not be able to keep the country safe.

There couldn't be a more devastating critique levelled at the prime minister.

We knew the government was struggling to find agreement over its defence investment plan, but what many hadn't seen coming was the guy at the top walking out.

Image source, EPA

Earlier, our political correspondent Jack Fenwick reported that now-former Defence Secretary John Healey had asked the government's other defence ministers to stay in post to minimise disruption.

Well since then, there have been two more resignations.

Pamela Nash resigned as parliamentary private secretary in the Ministry of Defence a few hours ago.

And, shortly after, so too did Armed Forces Minister Al Carns. As Chris Mason reports, the BBC understands he resigned after Dan Jarvis had been appointed as the new defence secretary.

Prior to his own resignation, Carns had mounted a defence of his former boss, writing that "John Healey has given this country serious service in a serious time."

He added: "I worked alongside him closely. I saw the hours, the care, and the seriousness he brought to every brief, including the hardest ones."

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

Political reaction to Al Carns's resignation from government is starting to trickle in.

Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge says he has "huge respect for Al Carns and the manner of his resignation".

Cartlidge calls some of the criticism of government legislation in Carns's letter a "passionate and principled excoriation".

Meanwhile, Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice asks why Carns "had no part in preparing" the government's defence investment plan "despite being best qualified Labour MP".

Chris Mason
Political editor

I understand that Al Carns resigned as a defence minister after Dan Jarvis had been appointed as the new defence secretary.

Freya Scott-Turner
Live reporter

Today has seen two ministerial posts vacated at the Ministry of Defence.

Armed Forces Minister Al Carns handed in his resignation a little while ago, following his boss John Healey, who stepped down as defence secretary earlier today.

Here's how the day has played out (so far):

On Monday - Healey says he is presented with the government's defence investment plan in full for the first time - it lays out funding for the department over the next decade.

12:09 (all times in BST) - John Healey publicly announces his resignation as defence secretary, posting his resignation letter on X. He says that he has "no other option" but to resign because funding falls "well short of what is required for defence and the country at this dangerous time".

13:34 - Al Carns, the armed forces minister, says there are "issues" facing the defence department, "that do not lend themselves to easy answers". He says that the world is "getting more dangerous" and his boss, John Healey, carried that weight with "discipline and decency".

At around 14:00 - A government source defends Starmer, telling the BBC: "This country is safer because of the decisions Keir Starmer has made and we will continue to act in our national interest."

Just after 18:00 - Keir Starmer defends his funding plans in a letter to Healey, saying his plan will "provide the resources our military needs to keep us safe” and that he was "sorry" to see the him go.

20:18 - Al Carns announces his resignation from government, writing in a letter to Starmer that "it has become clear to me that the change I had pushed for is not going to come", and the UK cannot keep up with changing “character of conflict”.