Ex-Army Officer calls on generals to 'stand down' in protest against Keir Starmer after double resignation

A former Army Officer has urged generals to step away from their positions in protest against Sir Keir Starmer following the resignations of John Healey and Al Carns.

Speaking to GB News, Hamish De Bretton-Gordon said the armed forces feel "completely let down" by the Prime Minister.

Following John Healey's resignation as Defence Secretary on Thursday, Al Carns also resigned as Armed Forces Minister, telling GB News he had been considering his departure "for a long time".

He said: "I know what the Armed Forces need, and I also know how to challenge the Armed Forces in some preconceived ideas of what they think they need, and I wasn't included in that, and I was pretty grumpy about it."

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Reacting to the double departure, Mr Bretton-Gordon expressed his disappointment in how the "two most principal and honourable members of the Cabinet have now gone".

He told GB News: "This is a crucial debate. The Government, first of all, do the Strategic Defence review, which I personally think is a really good look at what capability we have now and in future, and the Defence Investment Plan is supposed to fund it.

"Although as we've heard, and as Al Carns and John Healey have said, it falls well, well below what it is."

The ex-army officer declared it is "terribly sad" that the Government "is not prepared to fund defence".

He said: "When it comes to responsibility, certainly some of the senior members in the Ministry of Defence should also show that they really care about the men and women who are in our armed forces, who are prepared to fight for this country.

"But what is terribly sad is that it would appear that the Government is not prepared to fund it, and we are in such a dangerous position at the moment, not just Russia, but what we're seeing in Iran, and, of course, that the terrorist threat is still very much bubbling away."

Mr Bretton-Gordon expressed hope that the resignations of Mr Healey and Mr Carns will "convince the Prime Minister that funding defence is absolutely essential".

He explained: "Whether it comes from Ed Miliband's net zero bonanza or from the welfare budget, it's got to come. We have got to defend this country.

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"This is the most important thing that the Government can do. And quite frankly, if we can't do it, then perhaps they should step aside and let somebody else get on with it."

Highlighting Mr Carns's stance on the Northern Ireland Legacy Act, Mr Bretton-Gordon argued that the "hounding of British special forces" is "again another detriment that seems to have been led by the current Government".

He told GB News: "We in the military are absolutely not above the law and try and follow it to the letter as we can.

"But as Al Carns will know as well as anybody else, when your hair's been parted by an enemy bullet, sometimes the Human Rights Act is not the first thing that you think of.

"And when you come to the Legacy Act, it's just not balanced, it's not fair. Why should IRA terrorists be allowed to get off scot free whereas we're hounding soldiers who are trying to defend civilians and trying to stop terrorist acts happening?"

Mr Bretton-Gordon concluded: "At the end of the day, it's all about the men and women who defend this country.

"We have got to make sure that they have everything they need to defend it.

"And also we've got to make sure that they're not going to be hounded by human rights lawyers for things that happen on the battlefield. The battlefield is a very different place from from the sort of leafy lanes of Westminster."

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