Al Carns threatens more austerity to enrich arms companies

According to former ministers like Al Carns, the UK is facing the imminent threat of war. In a sense, this is always true, because the UK and the US regularly initiate conflict. And while we could simply stop committing ourselves to these illegal wars of aggression, Labour MPs like Carns and Lisa Nandy are instead proposing a fresh round of austerity:

Nandy: "We've got to significantly increase the amount we're spending on defence"

Over the last several days I haven't seen a single interviewer question this claim. Instead the challenge to politicians making it is, are you increasing it fast enough/by enough? pic.twitter.com/H7OA0MHllf

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) June 14, 2026

Al Carns — Clearly made up danger

In the UK, there’s a cottage industry of ‘defence analysts’ who make the rounds arguing that the UK is on the verge of imminent war with Russia / China / ‘terror’ / etc. The only time they stop making this case is when they’re shilling for Trident, because the argument for nukes is that they’re supposed to make an invasion of the UK impossible.

Al Carns is one of the defence shills who promotes unchecked military expenditure from inside parliament. Carns resigned in spectacular fashion earlier this week, arguing that Britain should be siphoning more money off to the military industrial complex. Carns resignation was pretty much universally praised by the right, because they also want to give endless bungs to defence contractors (in addition to protecting British soldiers from consequences should they commit war crimes):

The focus today is on defence funding. It's clearly mental the PM won't cut welfare to fund our military.

But don't miss what Carns says about Northern Ireland.

The Government's Troubles Bill will see veterans dragged through the courts. If they had any shame, they'd scrap it. https://t.co/2yen2uViDK

— Katie Lam (@Katie_Lam_MP) June 11, 2026

People on the left had criticisms:

How about we owe them not to die in a trench in a foreign country, in a war with no end, and to no end? https://t.co/0POzmA1U5O

— Stop the War Coalition (@STWuk) June 11, 2026

Aaron Bastani of Novara argued your average voter is now mostly deaf to the sabre rattling that successfully riled people up during the Cold War or the War on Terror:

We spend £66 billion on defence, and £18 billion on policing.

Ask the average voter – in Al Carns’ or John Healey’s seat – which is in dire need of more money. Westminster journalists may be surprised! https://t.co/kv32v1H7wA

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) June 11, 2026

At this point, the cat is out of the bag. People increasingly understand that the government is a machine which transfers wealth from the masses to corporate shareholders. They also know that every military conflict we’ve embroiled ourselves in over the past several decades has been a miserable embarrassment of avoidable slaughter.

We don’t need to spend more money on offshore military bases and deadly weapons; we need to stop pretending we’re a significant global power, because it’s coming at the expense of us being a functional mid-sized nation.

Austerity 3.0

If you’re wondering where the money for more war will come from, the answer is a fresh round of austerity:

Carns is asked where the extra £ for defence should come from.

".. I think there are places, such as moving welfare from hand outs to hand ups"

Describing welfare as hand outs tells us all about Carns politics & who he wants to target – the sick, disabled, low paid, pensioners pic.twitter.com/bfHscrkzCv

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) June 14, 2026

What’s the point of defending the country if it’s literally just an empty shell?

Carns also bragged about the UK military seizing control of a Russian tanker. As Saul Staniforth notes, we’re very opposed to this sort of thing when Iran does it:

Freedom of navigation must be protected, they say, the Strait of Hormuz must be re-opened, they demand.

Meanwhile in the Channel: pic.twitter.com/6L1yRk8ERl

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) June 14, 2026

🚨 WATCH: The moment Royal Marines board a shadow Russian oil tanker in the English Channel pic.twitter.com/6uLGfcqsl8

— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) June 14, 2026

Lisa Nandy was also at it:

Lisa Nandy boasting that Starmer cut the aid budget to fund more 'defence' spending & confirms we need to increase spending even more to "meet this moment"

The UK is already the 5th highest military spender in the world (only the US, China, Russia and Germany spend more than us) pic.twitter.com/cLCxwEKMEV

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) June 14, 2026

By population, the UK is the 22nd largest country in the world. Do we really need to be the fifth biggest spender on arms? How does that benefit us?

Let’s not forget, as much as these people cry about ‘defence’, we don’t use these weapons defensively; we use them offensively – and the reason we do so is to create an excuse to buy more weapons.

As Staniforth highlights, it’s austerity which is driving voters to the right. Labour’s solution to this is to implement more austerity:

Lisa Nandy condemns the nasty & divisive politics of Farage & says living standards haven't improved for too long & people want better, along with hope.

Moments before she was confirming the govt is going to make cuts across departments to fund more 'defence' spending. pic.twitter.com/dXtvAvVeFh

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) June 14, 2026

End of Empire

America and China aren’t laughing at us because we’re no longer a serious military power; they’re laughing because of guys like Al Carns who think we still could be.

Amazingly, this is all happening as Iran has shown you can counter the West’s endless military expenditure with much cheaper technology. And that’s the real threat, isn’t it? Because if you can outclass a multi-million pound missile with a £10k drone, the defence industry suddenly looks much larger than it has any right to be.

This is why the shills are going to scream louder, and why their protests are going to grow ever more ridiculous.

Featured image via Leon Neal (Getty Images) / Christopher Furlong (Getty Images)