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Given his background, I had been keen to meet the new MP for Birmingham Selly Oak for months after his election in 2024. Al Carns MC had left the military just days before being promoted to brigadier, when he was elected in a Labour landslide as one of just two MPs in the Commons to have won a gallantry medal.

His background in the special forces, something he has never commented on publicly, made him stand out amongst the raft of new MPs arriving in Westminster in July 2024 and saw him quickly appointed to a ministerial role, taking on the brief of veterans' affairs. Those I knew in the veterans community spoke highly of him, including former Conservative MPs, so naturally I was intrigued to understand more about the man who forfeited a military career that saw him tipped for the top, to get into the dogfight that is British politics in the 2020s. At an event in Whitehall last year, I got my chance.

Carns and I have previous military service in common, but only in the sense that Harry Kane and Patrick Bamford have careers in football in common - one career is vastly more impressive than the others.

At the time, Carns had recently returned from a record-breaking trip to climb Mount Everest in under five days without acclimatisation, something he described as a "lick" (hard work in non-military terms).

Over a beer, we discussed leaving the military at roughly the same time, the Strategic Defence Review and a host of other defence-related topics.

He was easy to get on with, engaging, interesting and sharp on his brief. He had personality and in many ways, it is these qualities that I think will hold him back from becoming Labour leader should a contest be triggered.

Because historically, personality is used as a black mark against Labour leadership candidates. I have old cartons of milk in the fridge with more personality and appeal than Keir Starmer, Jeremy Corybn, Ed Miliband and Gordon Brown combined, the last four Labour leaders.

The fact that the term "Blairite", a nod to the last leader with anything close to likeability and popular appeal, has become a term of abuse inside parts of the Labour Party is revealing.

Too often, the party appears to reserve its greatest admiration for figures who excite trade union leaders, activists and the metropolitan left, but who struggle to command the confidence of the wider country.

The fact that Miliband is seen as the favourite in a potential contest if Andy Burnham fails to win a seat in parliament tells you everything you need to know about the Labour Party's inherent obsession with self-destruction.

The irony would be off the scale if a disastrous set of local election results were to prove fatal for Sir Keir Starmer, and the party turned to a figure who has already lost a General Election and who, according to YouGov, currently has a net public approval rating of -32.

Burnham himself is no stranger to failed elections, having fallen short in two Labour leadership contests already in his career.

Carns has much going for him. Aside from his personal qualities, he has a military career, which can take on criticism that the party lacks patriotism head-on. Nobody can claim that Carns "hates the flag," given he fought for it and lost friends with it on their arm.

His background could appeal to the young male vote, a target of Reform UK, particularly online, and his service would resonate in traditional Labour heartlands where respect for the military remains strong.

Al Carns is one of the MPs Nigel Farage would least like to come up against. He will be licking his lips at the prospect of Miliband, Wes Streeting or Angela Rayner.

There are other drawbacks, of course. He has spent the entirety of his short parliamentary career in the MOD, meaning he has said very little on matters that would come under severe scrutiny in a leadership contest. Sure, that makes him a blank canvas, but we know very little about what an Al Carns Government would look like.

But I fear that alongside his personality and ability to communicate with normal people, his military career, something that would be an asset in a General Election, would be an almighty hindrance in a leadership contest where he relies on the support of Labour's pacifist left.