I worked with the Special Forces officer tipped to be PM – he’s unlike other MPs

 The 32-week training programme to become a Royal Marine Commando and earn the coveted green beret is said to be one of the toughest in the world.

It involves sleep deprivation, handling live weapons and mastering medical skills, all while being pushed to physical extremes with constant drills and obstacle courses.

The test ends with a notoriously tough 30-mile march over Dartmoor carrying a 9.5kg backpack and rifle. Around 40 per cent of recruits don’t pass.

Armed Forces minister Al Carns has successfully completed the programme twice. Once when he joined the Marines as a 19-year-old in 1999, and a second time when he decided to become an officer four years later.

“That’s why my knees creak so much,” he joked in an interview with podcaster Dodge Woodall last year.

It is also helps explain why Carns, a high-decorated former colonel, commands a level of respect within military circles that is rare among politicians and could propel him to even greater political heights, insiders say.

‘He has loyalty and commitment that is sometimes lacking in politics’

The 46-year-old has only been an MP since the general election in 2024, when he decided to bring his career in the Armed Forces to an end.

He told Woodall he felt “stuck in a hierarchical organisation” where it would take him “a long time to get into a position to wield significant influence”.

Carns said he wanted to see change in Britain’s weakened military, made more urgent by the war in Ukraine, and decided the best way to do that was to enter politics, walking away from a promotion to brigadier to become Labour’s MP for Birmingham Selly Oak.

In less than two years, he is now being talked about as an outside contender to replace Sir Keir Starmer.

It is widely acknowledged that the likelihood is slim that someone whose political career has spanned such a short period could take the reins inside No 10. One Labour MP told The i Paper last month: “People like a military man and they think he is the answer to our questions but I am not sure how serious any leadership chat is.”

However, with the Prime Minister’s future looking even more perilous as a result of the Mandelson affair, MPs are faced with the renewed question of who could step up as a viable alternative.

While senior Labour figures – Angela Rayner, Wes Streeting or Andy Burnham – all face hurdles in pulling off a potential successful leadership bid, Carns is viewed by some as a fresh face who could turn Labour’s fortunes around.

A source who worked with Carns in government, when he advised three former Tory defence secretaries, told The i Paper he was “without a doubt one of the most astute individuals to have worked within defence”, adding he “inspired a level of loyalty and commitment” among colleagues.

Despite being a political novice, Carns has done little to dampen any leadership speculation, putting his name forward as a potential replacement for Rayner as deputy leader last year, the only MP from the 2024 intake to do so.

Another Labour insider said: “People are quite impressed by him. By all accounts he’s a very diligent minister.”

‘Serious’ military honour for mystery heroics in the battlefield

Though Carns will not confirm or deny it, he is understood to have been selected from the Royal Marines to serve in the Special Boat Service (SBS), the elite unit responsible for carrying out some of the most dangerous missions in the Armed Forces.

During fours tours of Afghanistan he was awarded the Military Cross in 2011, appointed an OBE in 2022 and in 2025 earned the Distinguished Service Order (DSO).

“I’m delighted that a military man is being thought about like this,” said Admiral Lord West, the former commander in chief of the Royal Navy who served in Gordon Brown’s government between 2007 and 2010.