Armed Forces Bill

I congratulate the hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) on the measured way in which he has moved the amendments. I have some sympathy with where he is coming from, but I find myself unable to support them. They do not have quite the effect that the hon. Gentleman maintains, and it is just as well that they do not. I sympathise with him in that I, like him, opposed the Iraq war, and because in almost any circumstances that I can imagine the penalty of life imprisonment would be way over the top. Like him, I take the view that the arrangements for armed servicemen to claim conscientious objection are not working in practice, whatever they may say in theory, and like him I think that other shortcomings of the Bill result in a failure to address some of the grievances and points raised by people to whom both he and I will have spoken. The hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington is mistaken in two regards. First, as other hon. Members have said, the existing legislation already includes the potential penalty of life imprisonment for anyone who deserts while on active service overseas. Although subsection (3)(c) does not add anything to the body of law, the hon. Gentleman is mistaken in suggesting that it somehow constitutes a toughening of the law, because servicemen who desert while on active service overseas can already go to a general court martial, where they face possible life imprisonment. Secondly, given that clause 163 leaves in place the maximum potential penalty, the amendment will not achieve the objective that the hon. Gentleman explained at the outset.