The Labour Party is days away from learning whether its next leader will be anointed or forced to fight for the job. One man stands between Andy Burnham and a coronation. His name is Al Carns.
The MP for Selly Oak sat in a Birmingham pub on Monday, sunglasses on his head, a pint in his hand, and made it plain: he has not ruled out challenging Burnham. “I have not yet stood up to challenge him but nor have I ruled that out because we haven’t seen the plan yet,” Carns told BirminghamLive at Cherry Reds.
The plan in question is Burnham’s expected economic blueprint. It is due Monday or Tuesday. Carns said: “Then we will see.” The stakes are concrete.
If Carns stands, the Labour leadership race becomes a contest. If he does not, Burnham walks into Number 10 Downing Street unopposed.
Other potential challengers have already stepped aside. The red carpet, as one report put it, is being laid. Carns is the only Labour MP still holding a corner of it.
His timing is no accident. A fortnight ago, Carns resigned from Keir Starmer’s government. Days later, Starmer resigned as prime minister.
The sequence was fast. Carns is now the sole figure who may yet force a vote among Labour MPs and members.
He is calling on Burnham to be “bold and courageous.” The warning is direct: fail to meet that standard, and the risk is letting people down. Burnham is the country’s newest MP. He won the Makerfield by-election and is widely expected to succeed Starmer as both Labour leader and prime minister.
That expectation has become near-certainty. But near-certainty is not certainty.
Carns is a former Royal Marine. He has spent the past fortnight on politics programmes and news websites, positioning himself as the figure who might pull the contest open. What is genuinely at risk here is not just who leads Labour.
It is whether the party will have a leadership election at all. The difference between a coronation and a contest matters. A contest forces candidates to lay out detailed plans, to defend them in public, to answer questions from members and the press.
A coronation does none of that. It assumes consent.
Carns is refusing to give that assumption a free pass. He said he has not ruled out standing. That is a statement of possibility, not a threat.
But in the current landscape, possibility is enough. The party is watching.
So is the country. The economic plan due in the next 48 hours will determine Carns’s next move. If it is bold and courageous, he may step aside.
If it falls short, he may step forward. The scene in Birmingham was casual. A pub.
A pint. Sunglasses.
But the conversation was not. Carns was composed, according to the report. He did not raise his voice.
He did not issue ultimatums. He simply stated where he stands and what he is waiting for.
The Labour Party has not had a contested leadership race since 2020. That race was won by Starmer. Now Starmer is gone.
Burnham is the favourite. Carns is the question mark. The answer arrives this week.
