Can Carns can Keir?

Dear readers — welcome to your Monday Briefing. Kate is once again at the helm, steering the great ship Dispatch alone this week. No icebergs up ahead.

Today, MP for Selly Oak Al Carns has hinted heavily that he is planning to make a bid for Labour leader and take Keir Starmer’s job — but the Daily Mail has revealed one of his biggest supporters is a local businessman who has served time for fraud. That’s our top story.

Also today, more local Labour drama as member for Bromford and Hodge Hill Majid Mahmood has resigned dramatically from the party, prompting accusations that he is a “wasteman” from a Labour member (and daughter of MP Paulette Hamilton).

Elsewhere, Raise the Colours founder and Bromsgrovian Ryan Bridge was reportedly arrested at the anti-immigration protest in Brighton on Saturday that saw a number of attendees trapped in a pub after being surrounded by swathes of counter-demonstrators. All of that is in today’s Brum in Brief.

But before that, we are hiring! Mill Media, the small company that The Dispatch is a part of, needs a hot-shot senior editor. If that’s you, take a look at the job description and apply below:

We’re hiring: Senior Editor at Mill Media

Mill Media is looking for a Senior Editor to join and help to lead one of the most exciting and innovative teams in British journalism. We need an exceptional editorial leader who knows how to get …

Mill MediaJoshi Herrmann

Catch up and coming up:

• On Saturday, history-writer extraordinaire Jon Neale took us back in time to a 1940s houseshare in Edgbaston that led to the development of the atomic bomb. “This is another example of your excellent research highlighting an incredible contribution in Birmingham to a dark and world-changing part of history,” commented one reader. Catch up here.
• Last week, freelance writer Rachel Segal-Hamilton explored how Brum’s schoolkids are being impacted by their smartphones. As one reader put it, “Disturbing stuff, and great reporting on what is seemingly a nuanced issue.” Catch up here.
• At the weekend, our sister paper in Manchester, The Mill published a two-part investigation into who was behind the 1996 Manchester IRA bomb. Part two includes this startling insight about Birmingham, by the award-winning author and war reporter Tony Harnden: "I learned in 1997, from information supplied by McGinn, that the IRA had planned to bomb Birmingham after Manchester but called off the operation when they believed its operators were being followed."