UK Parliament / Open data

Strategic Defence and Security Review

Backbench debate on Thursday, 16 September 2010, in the House of Commons, led by Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom. The answering member was Nick Harvey.
Fourth backbench debate. Agreed to on question.
Type
Parliamentary proceeding
Reference
515 c1037-125 
Session
2010-12
Department
Ministry of Defence
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Related items
The Strategic Defence and Security Review. Defence Select Committee first report with formal minutes.
Tuesday, 7 September 2010
Parliamentary committees
House of Commons
Proceeding contributions
Speaker | 515 c1037 (Link to this contribution) A large number of Back Benchers want to take part in the debate. I understand that the Select Commit...
Bob Ainsworth | 515 c1045 (Link to this contribution) Let me reassure the hon. Gentleman that I do not believe that the current Secretary of State is the ...

Show all contributions (171)
Bob Ainsworth | 515 c1044-5 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman was not here in the last Parliament. He will know if he looks at the record that ...
Julian Lewis | 515 c1045 (Link to this contribution) May I seek to reassure hon. Members on both sides of the House who are firmly committed to the conti...
Alec Shelbrooke | 515 c1044 (Link to this contribution) I very much support the comments made by my hon. Friend the Member for Harwich and North Essex on th...
Bob Ainsworth | 515 c1044 (Link to this contribution) I would say to my hon. Friend that the people in our armed forces are pretty robust and they can put...
Speaker | 515 c1044 (Link to this contribution) Before Mr Ainsworth replies, may I say to the hon. Member for Ynys Môn that we must try to have shor...
Albert Owen | 515 c1043-4 (Link to this contribution) The shadow Secretary of State is right to compliment the Defence Committee Chairman's outlining of t...
Bob Ainsworth | 515 c1042-3 (Link to this contribution) I would not have given way to the hon. Gentleman if I had known that his intervention was going to b...
Ben Wallace | 515 c1042 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for making his point. Does he not recognise that we would ...
Bob Ainsworth | 515 c1042 (Link to this contribution) May I just say a word on the process? I know that the Backbench Business Committee debates are a new...
Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom | 515 c1041 (Link to this contribution) If my hon. Friend will allow me, I will just make this one comment, while I am in full flow, to the ...
Lord Soames of Fletching | 515 c1041 (Link to this contribution) Does my right hon. Friend agree that not only was that review not funded, but there was clearly a de...
Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom | 515 c1041-2 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is entirely right; the problem was that the then Chancellor was not naturally enthusi...
Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom | 515 c1040 (Link to this contribution) That, of course, is the role of our hon. Friend the Minister, who will make his speech in due course...
Bob Russell | 515 c1040 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman is presenting a devastating negative case. Can he bring anything positive t...
Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom | 515 c1040-1 (Link to this contribution) That, of course, is also what the Committee thinks. One of the Committee's principal objections is ...
Bob Russell | 515 c1040 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for allowing me to intervene a second time. I posed the qu...
Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom | 515 c1039-40 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is rapidly taking on the mantle of our former colleague, John Smith, who made reg...
Chris Bryant | 515 c1039 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman makes quite a devastating critique of the process, but may I push him in a ...
Julian Brazier | 515 c1050 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my hon. Friend for giving way, and for those rousing words. In deciding what future...
Nick Harvey | 515 c1049 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is allowing himself to go into the realms of speculation. We will have to await the d...
James Gray | 515 c1049 (Link to this contribution) The Minister will know that I am very concerned about Lyneham. While I, of course, accept what he sa...
Nick Harvey | 515 c1049 (Link to this contribution) The Government—the Treasury in particular, but all Departments—will take seriously the economic cons...
Angus Robertson | 515 c1049 (Link to this contribution) In a recent interview with The Press and Journal, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury said that the ...
Nick Harvey | 515 c1050 (Link to this contribution) I have made it clear that I do not intend to be drawn into speculation about the outcome of the revi...
Robert Halfon | 515 c1050 (Link to this contribution) I thank my hon. Friend for giving way. He mentioned the role of reservists. Will he confirm that the...
Nick Harvey | 515 c1049-50 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising that point. Let me say that a vast number of representat...
Stephen Phillips | 515 c1049 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend said a few moments ago that we were all entitled to have our input into this process....
Nick Harvey | 515 c1048 (Link to this contribution) I commend the Backbench Business Committee for choosing this topic for debate today. After Afghanist...
Bob Russell | 515 c1048 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the Minister for giving way. He drew attention to Afghanistan. This debate takes pl...
Bob Ainsworth | 515 c1045 (Link to this contribution) We had a manifesto that I helped to write. The Conservatives had a manifesto and the Liberal Democra...
Robert Halfon | 515 c1045 (Link to this contribution) The shadow Secretary of State mentioned that he would be happy for there to be a debate on either si...
Bob Ainsworth | 515 c1046 (Link to this contribution) Or even in a more favourable political climate. One of the difficulties is that people accept the re...
Malcolm Rifkind | 515 c1046 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman is obviously right to raise what could be a very serious issue. The suggest...
Bob Ainsworth | 515 c1046 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend understands that issue in greater detail than I do, but I think he is absolutely righ...
Lord Walney | 515 c1046 (Link to this contribution) Does my right hon. Friend agree not only that we must seek to learn the lessons of history, after th...
Bob Ainsworth | 515 c1047 (Link to this contribution) I have said to members of the armed forces that to some degree that is academic because it all comes...
Lord Campbell of Pittenweem | 515 c1047 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman knows that my views are rather different from his, but I applaud his call f...
Malcolm Rifkind | 515 c1055 (Link to this contribution) I welcome the Minister's extremely reassuring remarks. In that context, I note the intensive press r...
Lord Walney | 515 c1054 (Link to this contribution) The Minister has just said that the decisions on the timetable have been taken and will not change, ...
Nick Harvey | 515 c1054-5 (Link to this contribution) Let me say this again: the decision on Trident has been taken. It was laid out in the coalition agre...
Nick Harvey | 515 c1054 (Link to this contribution) I see the hon. Member for Barrow and Furness rising, and, in terms of the impact that the process mi...
David Hamilton | 515 c1054 (Link to this contribution) Next month we will know exactly what the cuts are going to be. Surely the British public have a righ...
Nick Harvey | 515 c1054 (Link to this contribution) The in-principle debate about whether to embark on the programme was held in 2007, and the final opp...
Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom | 515 c1053 (Link to this contribution) In order to set the record straight, does my hon. Friend remember that although the shadow Secretary...
Nick Harvey | 515 c1053-4 (Link to this contribution) I congratulate my right hon. Friend on having winkled that out of Labour Members; I am very glad tha...
Nick Harvey | 515 c1053 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is quite right. That was precisely the significance of the measures that the right ho...
Nick Harvey | 515 c1051-2 (Link to this contribution) The figure is certainly spread over the 10-year period of this review. The gap between the commitmen...
Bob Ainsworth | 515 c1052 (Link to this contribution) Everybody apart from the hon. Gentleman and the Secretary of State, perhaps. The hon. Gentleman is ...
Nick Harvey | 515 c1052 (Link to this contribution) Every time there was a defence debate in this House in the two or three years before the election, C...
Bernard Jenkin | 515 c1052-3 (Link to this contribution) Although I have great respect for the shadow Secretary of State and the work that he did in the Depa...
Nick Harvey | 515 c1051 (Link to this contribution) I need to make a bit of progress, and I have a suspicion that my hon. Friend will want to come in a ...
Nick Harvey | 515 c1051 (Link to this contribution) If the hon. Gentleman is rising to apologise for that, I will happily give way to him.
Lord Beamish | 515 c1051 (Link to this contribution) No, I am not, and I am also not going to allow the hon. Gentleman to con the British public into thi...
Nick Harvey | 515 c1051 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes a good point, as he always does on these matters, and I can reassure him that i...
Angus Robertson | 515 c1061-2 (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. and learned Member for North East Fife (Sir Menzies Campbe...
Gemma Doyle | 515 c1062 (Link to this contribution) Can the hon. Gentleman advise me whether his party's recent U-turn on an independence referendum is ...
Lord Walney | 515 c1060 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful. I am also grateful that the Labour party's position has changed, for which my predece...
Lord Campbell of Pittenweem | 515 c1060-1 (Link to this contribution) We must agree about that. That takes me to the points that the Chairman of the Defence Committee ma...
Angus Robertson | 515 c1063-4 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Lady has obviously not been listening to the facts, because under the Government she suppor...
Nick Harvey | 515 c1056 (Link to this contribution) When giving way, there is always a trade-off between allowing people to intervene and eating up the ...
Lord Walney | 515 c1059 (Link to this contribution) Will the right hon. and learned Gentleman give way?
Lord Campbell of Pittenweem | 515 c1059 (Link to this contribution) I hope that the hon. Gentleman will excuse me if I make a little progress first. I listened to my h...
Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston | 515 c1056-9 (Link to this contribution) I, too, congratulate the Backbench Business Committee on selecting this subject for debate. May I ob...
Lord Campbell of Pittenweem | 515 c1059 (Link to this contribution) I apologise to the House and to the Chairman of the Select Committee on Defence for not being presen...
Nick Harvey | 515 c1055 (Link to this contribution) I have absolutely no grounds whatever to think or believe that it was, and to the extent that I am a...
Julian Lewis | 515 c1055 (Link to this contribution) Will the Minister allow me one more time?
Nick Harvey | 515 c1055 (Link to this contribution) Well, as it is my hon. Friend, I will.
Julian Lewis | 515 c1055-6 (Link to this contribution) If that is the case and we are meant to discount the story, will the Minister just confirm one thing...
Nick Harvey | 515 c1056 (Link to this contribution) I do not think that that is within the scope of the study under consideration; the study is about ho...
Nick Harvey | 515 c1055 (Link to this contribution) I rather agreed with the right hon. Member for Coventry North East, who said that that point is larg...
Nick Harvey | 515 c1055 (Link to this contribution) Ah! I had anticipated my hon. Friend wanting to come in, and this was the point at which I thought h...
Julian Lewis | 515 c1055 (Link to this contribution) And the Minister has done so very graciously. He is doing his best at damage limitation. What would ...
Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom | 515 c1037 (Link to this contribution) I am extremely grateful to the Backbench Business Committee for securing a debate on the strategic d...
Tony Baldry | 515 c1037 (Link to this contribution) In respect of the SDSR, does the Chairman of the Select Committee agree that what is really importan...
Albert Owen | 515 c1038 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for his measured comments yesterday on his report, which h...
Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom | 515 c1038 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is absolutely right, because one of the major advantages our country has is the numbe...
James Gray | 515 c1039 (Link to this contribution) Am I right in thinking that somewhere in the report, the Committee comments on the unfortunate conse...
Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom | 515 c1038-9 (Link to this contribution) It would be quite wrong of me to fail to pay tribute to the RAF. It achieves extraordinary things wi...
Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom | 515 c1039 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is absolutely correct to say that the Committee comments in its report on the need fo...
Lord Walney | 515 c1071 (Link to this contribution) I associate myself with much of what the hon. Gentleman is saying, although I cannot comment on the ...
Julian Lewis | 515 c1070-1 (Link to this contribution) "““When it comes to our nuclear deterrent, there are some straightforward questions to answer. Shoul...
Lord Walney | 515 c1069-70 (Link to this contribution) Absolutely; my hon. Friend speaks well. He highlights the point made by my right hon. Friend the Mem...
Tom Blenkinsop | 515 c1068 (Link to this contribution) Indeed, there are many companies across the country, including nine in Middlesbrough, in the neighbo...
Alison Seabeck | 515 c1066 (Link to this contribution) I understand why the hon. Gentleman is making the case he is making, but is he aware that there woul...
James Gray | 515 c1064-6 (Link to this contribution) In congratulating the Backbench Business Committee on choosing this extremely important topic for de...
Lord Walney | 515 c1068 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend is absolutely right, and I am grateful to him for that point. He mentioned the ...
Denis MacShane | 515 c1068 (Link to this contribution) One does not think of my constituency as being a big arms-producing centre, yet there are four Rothe...
Lord Walney | 515 c1067-8 (Link to this contribution) May I associate myself absolutely with the remarks that the hon. Member for North Wiltshire (Mr Gray...
James Gray | 515 c1066-7 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Lady makes a good point. There would be a large cost in bringing our troops back from Germa...
Speaker | 515 c1120 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful for Members' brevity; we got everyone in. We can now start the wind-ups.
Alec Shelbrooke | 515 c1118-20 (Link to this contribution) In the moments remaining, I shall try to be brief. I am pleased to be speaking towards the end of to...
Sarah Wollaston | 515 c1117-8 (Link to this contribution) We have heard this afternoon from both a wife and a mother, so I am happy to complete the set as the...
Priti Patel | 515 c1116-7 (Link to this contribution) I pay tribute to the brave men and women of our armed forces. We have heard a lot about them in the ...
Nick Harvey | 515 c1121-2 (Link to this contribution) With the leave of the House, Mr Deputy Speaker, I will reply. This has been a good debate. When the ...
Bob Ainsworth | 515 c1121 (Link to this contribution) That is very kind of the right hon. Gentleman. A number of people have said kind things. The defenc...
Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom | 515 c1121 (Link to this contribution) Will the right hon. Gentleman please accept that I confirm what he has just said in every respect? I...
Bob Ainsworth | 515 c1120-1 (Link to this contribution) We have had an excellent debate. There has been the usual mixture of party political fencing, good d...
Ben Gummer | 515 c1114-6 (Link to this contribution) If only the former United States Defence Secretary had possessed the clarity of speech that has just...
Lord Wharton of Yarm | 515 c1112-4 (Link to this contribution) Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for this opportunity to speak this afternoon. Like so many Members bef...
Speaker | 515 c1112 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to Members for their brevity.
Paul Uppal | 515 c1104-6 (Link to this contribution) You have asked for brevity, Mr Deputy Speaker, and I will genuinely try to honour that request for t...
Simon Reevell | 515 c1103-4 (Link to this contribution) There has been much discussion here and in the media about aircraft, aircraft carriers and nuclear s...
Paul Uppal | 515 c1106 (Link to this contribution) I will not because time is pressing. Normally, I would give way, but I have to press on. I have oft...
Lord Beamish | 515 c1106 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Caroline Dinenage | 515 c1108-9 (Link to this contribution) I declare an interest in this debate as the wife of a serving naval officer. It was in that capacity...
John Glen | 515 c1106-8 (Link to this contribution) At the core of the debate are three interlocking factors. I want to examine them and draw some concl...
Stephen Phillips | 515 c1110-2 (Link to this contribution) Notwithstanding the fact that time is pressing, I want to thank the Backbench Business Committee for...
Sheryll Murray | 515 c1109-10 (Link to this contribution) Like my hon. Friend the Member for Gosport (Caroline Dinenage), I have a special interest in the Roy...
Speaker | 515 c1103 (Link to this contribution) Order. We are moving into last-hour territory for Back-Benchers' contributions to this important deb...
Denis MacShane | 515 c1101 (Link to this contribution) On whether we cut expenditure on manpower or equipment, does the hon. Gentleman feel any of my conce...
Bernard Jenkin | 515 c1101-3 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for his suggestion, but I am not going to be drawn into th...
Bernard Jenkin | 515 c1101 (Link to this contribution) I commend my hon. Friend the Member for Canterbury (Mr Brazier) for the passion and sincerity that h...
Julian Brazier | 515 c1098-101 (Link to this contribution) I thoroughly agree with my hon. and gallant Friend. Over the years, on a number of occasions—includi...
Bob Stewart | 515 c1098 (Link to this contribution) When people are wounded, it has an impact on morale. As I am in poetic mood, may I just say what Pad...
Julian Brazier | 515 c1098 (Link to this contribution) Let me start by paying tribute to 5th Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland, better known as the ...
Denis MacShane | 515 c1097-8 (Link to this contribution) I am glad that the hon. Gentleman agrees with me. We have the new rising powers in the world that d...
Denis MacShane | 515 c1097 (Link to this contribution) From a sedentary position, the hon. Gentleman makes a crack about Poland. [Interruption.] I have a l...
Denis MacShane | 515 c1096-7 (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Beckenham (Bob Stewart), whose maiden speech I heard....
Alec Shelbrooke | 515 c1097 (Link to this contribution) On the right hon. Gentleman's comments about cyber-attacks, I wonder whether he, like me, was able t...
Denis MacShane | 515 c1097 (Link to this contribution) I was not, but I am nervous of service patriotism. I understand it, but I wonder whether the RAF sho...
Bob Stewart | 515 c1095 (Link to this contribution) If the hon. Gentleman wants me to sit, I will sit.
Bob Stewart | 515 c1095-6 (Link to this contribution) That is great, but let us make it better, because I know servicemen who were victims of the Ballykel...
Lord Beamish | 515 c1095 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman may find that what the previous Labour Government and I did on the Army recovery ...
Bob Stewart | 515 c1094 (Link to this contribution) I am very glad to hear that, but we would certainly need an SDSR, and it is taking place very quickl...
Bob Stewart | 515 c1094-5 (Link to this contribution) Yes, and they may be cheaper. Procurement is a big problem; it is never easy to procure. In the sec...
Nick Harvey | 515 c1122 (Link to this contribution) I will, but in the short time I have available, I do not want to make this a precedent.
Angus Robertson | 515 c1122 (Link to this contribution) This is very much in response to where the Minister is in his comments. Given that he has paid so mu...
Nick Harvey | 515 c1124-5 (Link to this contribution) Maybe, he says. I should like to echo the words of the Defence Committee Chairman and others in payi...
Speaker | 515 c1125 (Link to this contribution) I wish Members from all parts of the House a happy, fruitful and interesting conference recess.
Nick Harvey | 515 c1122 (Link to this contribution) I suppose I am mildly surprised not even to have seen the usual suspects. In fairness, we have heard...
Nick Harvey | 515 c1122-4 (Link to this contribution) It was my expression, which the right hon. Gentleman kindly elevated to make his point. I say to al...
Gemma Doyle | 515 c1090-3 (Link to this contribution) I should like to offer my apologies for being unable to stay for the end of the debate; I am afraid ...
David Hamilton | 515 c1093 (Link to this contribution) As my hon. Friend may know, £1.2 billion has already been spent on the aircraft carriers. It would b...
Gemma Doyle | 515 c1093 (Link to this contribution) I agree with my hon. Friend. He has made a very good point. The uncertainty threatens thousands of ...
Speaker | 515 c1093 (Link to this contribution) Order. Before I call the next Member, let me point out that a great many Members wish to speak. If t...
Bob Stewart | 515 c1093 (Link to this contribution) Let me begin by associating myself absolutely with the Chairman of the Select Committee, my right ho...
Bob Stewart | 515 c1094 (Link to this contribution) We certainly would not need politicians. Everyone is a little wicked, even Opposition Members. We h...
Lord Beamish | 515 c1094 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman seems to be reading out the script he has been given by his party's central offic...
Bob Stewart | 515 c1094 (Link to this contribution) If the hon. Gentleman wants me to give way, I will give way.
Speaker | 515 c1084 (Link to this contribution) I call Dan Byles, a Member wearing a Royal Army Medical Corps tie.
Richard Drax | 515 c1087-8 (Link to this contribution) I apologise for not being here at the start of the debate. I wish that I had heard the speech by my ...
Lord Beamish | 515 c1088 (Link to this contribution) I am listening carefully to what the hon. Gentleman says, and I agree with quite a lot of it. Howeve...
Daniel Byles | 515 c1084-5 (Link to this contribution) Snap, Mr Deputy Speaker. This has been a fascinating debate so far, and I pay tribute to Members on...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 515 c1086-7 (Link to this contribution) The debate is welcome, although it is a little unsettling against the changing landscape of the SDSR...
Alec Shelbrooke | 515 c1089 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree that, because of the ongoing conflicts involving the Army and the Royal Ai...
Richard Drax | 515 c1089 (Link to this contribution) I entirely concur with my hon. Friend. On nuclear submarines, I entirely concur with my hon. Friend...
Andrew Murrison | 515 c1089 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend not think it a bit rich for those who are now on the Opposition Benches to compl...
Richard Drax | 515 c1088 (Link to this contribution) As I have already hinted, and as I shall now say bluntly, the reason the bean counters are in is par...
Richard Drax | 515 c1089-90 (Link to this contribution) I shall say it again: the Royal Navy is the senior service. Without the Royal Navy, we would not be ...
Julian Lewis | 515 c1071-2 (Link to this contribution) I think it would do no harm at all for the Prime Minister to make a further statement. He has always...
Jeffrey M Donaldson | 515 c1072-4 (Link to this contribution) I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate. Let me begin by paying tribute to the soldier...
Penny Mordaunt | 515 c1074-6 (Link to this contribution) Allow me to take you back to the evening of 31 March 1982, Mr Deputy Speaker. The Prime Minister has...
Alison Seabeck | 515 c1077 (Link to this contribution) In June, when the SDSR was announced, I welcomed the fact that that was going to happen, following t...
David Hamilton | 515 c1083-4 (Link to this contribution) No. At the end of the day, we have to be realistic. Scotland is part of Britain, and that is why peo...
Alison Seabeck | 515 c1077-80 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman needs perhaps to get some of his facts in order. The last Labour Government's pos...
Ben Gummer | 515 c1077 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Lady not concede that there were some strong suggestions when the right hon. Member fo...
David Hamilton | 515 c1081-3 (Link to this contribution) One of the interesting things about speaking this late on in the debate is that most of the things o...
Oliver Colvile | 515 c1080-1 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to be called to speak in this debate on the issue of defence, which is so important to...
Nick Harvey | 515 c1048-9 (Link to this contribution) I understand the concern that the Select Committee flags up and the reasons why my hon. Friend raise...
Subjects
Defence equipment
Manufacturing industries
Public expenditure
Procurement
Ministry of Defence
Submarines
Trident
Cuts
Strategic Defence and Security Review
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