Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Armed Forces

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Armed Forces is a mid-level ministerial position at the Ministry of Defence in the Government of the United Kingdom. It has been held by Alistair Carns since September 2025.

United Kingdom Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Armed Forces
Royal Arms as used by His Majesty's Government
Incumbent Alistair Carns since 6 September 2025
Ministry of Defence
Member of	Defence Council Admiralty Board Army Board Air Force Board
Reports to	Secretary of State for Defence
Nominator	Secretary of State for Defence
Appointer	Prime Minister Subject to formal approval by the King-in-Council
Term length	No fixed term
Inaugural holder	Peter Blaker
Formation	1981
Website	www.gov.uk

The office sometimes acts as the deputy to the secretary of state for defence, when it is of Minister of State rank. In July 2024, the appointment of Luke Pollard reverted the minister’s title to Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State.

The corresponding shadow minister is the shadow minister for the armed forces.

Roles

The responsibilities of the minister of state for the armed forces are:

• implementation of relevant SDR Vision and Recommendations
• oversight of Military Strategic Headquarters (MSHQ)
• legislation (including Armed Forces Bill)
• Northern Ireland Legacy
• Ukraine support – operations
• autonomy and drones, including Drone Centre of Excellence
• Force Posture and Deployment
• Intelligence
• Global Operational policy and commitments
• North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) operations and planning
• crisis response
• Permanent Joint Operational Bases and Overseas Bases (including Cyprus, Falkland Islands and Gibraltar)
• Military Aid to Civilian Authority (MACA)
• Homeland Defence
• UN Peacekeeping and Human Security Call Out Orders
• Overseas Security and Justice Assistance Reports

List of ministers and under-secretaries

Colour key (for political parties):
  Conservative   Labour   Liberal Democrats

Minister			Term of office		Political party	Ministry	Defence Sec.
		Barney Hayhoe	6 May 1979	5 January 1981	Conservative	Thatcher I	Pym
		Philip Goodhart	5 January 1981	19 May 1981	Conservative
		Peter Blaker	29 May 1981	13 June 1983	Conservative	Thatcher I	Nott
							Heseltine
		John Stanley	13 June 1983	13 June 1987	Conservative	Thatcher II
							Younger
		Ian Stewart	13 June 1987	25 July 1988	Conservative	Thatcher III
		Archie Hamilton	25 July 1988	27 May 1993	Conservative
							King
						Major I	Rifkind
						Major II
		Jeremy Hanley	27 May 1993	14 June 1994	Conservative
		Nicholas Soames	14 June 1994	2 May 1997	Conservative
							Portillo
		John Reid	2 May 1997	27 July 1998	Labour	Blair I	Robertson
		Doug Henderson	27 July 1998	29 July 1999	Labour
		John Spellar	29 July 1999	7 June 2001	Labour		Hoon
		Adam Ingram	7 June 2001	29 June 2007	Labour	Blair II
						Blair III	Reid
							Browne
		Bob Ainsworth	29 June 2007	5 May 2009	Labour	Brown
							Hutton
		Bill Rammell	5 May 2009	11 May 2010	Labour		Ainsworth
		Nick Harvey	13 May 2010	4 September 2012	Liberal Democrats	Cameron-Clegg	Fox
							Hammond
		Andrew Robathan	4 September 2012	7 October 2013	Conservative
		Mark Francois	7 October 2013	11 May 2015	Conservative
						Cameron II	Fallon
		Penny Mordaunt	11 May 2015	15 July 2016	Conservative
		Mike Penning	15 July 2016	12 June 2017	Conservative	May I
		Mark Lancaster	12 July 2017	16 December 2019	Conservative	May II
							Williamson
							Mordaunt
						Johnson I	Wallace
		Anne-Marie Trevelyan	16 December 2019	13 February 2020	Conservative	Johnson II
		James Heappey	13 February 2020	8 July 2022	Conservative	Johnson II	Wallace
		James Heappey	8 July 2022	6 September 2022	Conservative	Johnson II	Wallace
		James Heappey	6 September 2022	25 October 2022	Conservative	Truss	Wallace
		James Heappey	25 October 2022	26 March 2024	Conservative	Sunak	Wallace
		Leo Docherty	26 March 2024	5 July 2024	Conservative		Shapps
		Luke Pollard	9 July 2024	6 September 2025	Labour	Starmer	Healey
		Alistair Carns	6 September 2025	Incumbent	Labour

Shadow Minister for the Armed Forces

Member of Parliament

Kevan Jones (2015 to 2016)

Kate Hollern (2016)

Wayne David (2016 to 2020)

Stephen Morgan (2020 to 2021)

Stephen Kinnock (2021 to 2022)

Luke Pollard (2022 to 2024)

External links

• www.mod.uk