Defence

That question goes to the heart of everything we read from the all the various Select Committees ...

My hon. Friend mentioned North Korea. Is it not the case that the actions of the North Korean reg...

My right hon. Friend makes a very good point. North Korea and China are threatening some of the r...

The hon. Gentleman will probably be astonished to learn that the National Security Adviser—Sir Ma...

I could not agree more with the Chair of the Defence Committee. He is absolutely right. Sir Mark ...

I agree entirely with my hon. Friend. With regard to many of the commitments that were made in SD...

I agree. I will come on to the point that my hon. Friend has made very well when I talk about aff...

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on this debate and on his speech, with every single word of whi...

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his advice. I am sure that he has read the whole motion, which say...

My hon. Friend refers to maintaining a fiscally neutral position in defence spending. Does he rec...

My hon. Friend knows, from his own background in the defence industry, the importance of the poin...

I strongly agree with everything the hon. Gentleman has said. We must support our brave men and w...

I thank the hon. Lady for the important point she makes. It is obviously crucial that all our vet...

I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Gedling (Vernon Coaker). Not for the first time, he has give...

I have also looked at the statistics mentioned by the right hon. Gentleman, and he is absolutely ...

That is absolutely right. It is a measure of how far downwards our expectations were managed duri...

I thank my right hon. Friend for giving way, and it is a pleasure to serve under his stout chairm...

My right hon. Friend speaks with great experience as a former Armed Forces Minister, and he made ...

My right hon. Friend is making an extremely important point about the whole structure of decision...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and he made a very useful contribution to the questioning of ...

My right hon. Friend is coming to his peroration, and I want to go back to his initial point, if ...

I am grateful to the Minister for making that point in that way, and nobody could be doing more t...

I thank my right hon. Friend the Chairman of the Committee for giving way, but surely this is the...

I agree, but I think it is something more important than that. They must have a proper strategic ...

Order. I have given a lot of leeway to the hon. Gentleman who moved the motion, and to the Chairm...

It is a privilege to be called to speak in this debate. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member ...

My hon. Friend talks eloquently about training, but is it not just as important to consider accom...

My hon. Friend makes an important point. Because of the time available today, I have not got into...

Rarely in debates in this Chamber can the fourth speaker have been faced with such a major challe...

When it comes to defence, we have to accept that without the right personnel with the right exper...

The immensely frustrating factor in all this is that the Ministry of Defence and the services see...

My right hon. Friend makes an important point. Some statistics released today show that 71% of bu...

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Bridgend (Mrs Moon), who always speaks knowledgeab...

It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Rayleigh and Wickford (Mr Francois) and my o...

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

Not at the moment, because I need to make progress, as other Members want to get in.

Last m...

By way of disclosure, I should say that I had the privilege to serve, in a modest way, in the Afg...

One thing has been worrying me a great deal. A number of people have cited Russia as a growing th...

The hon. Lady makes a good point. I talk about the threat from the east because I would like to b...

I rise as my party’s defence spokesman. It is important that I remind the House that my daughter ...

I feel obliged to intervene as a matter of national security to assure the House and the hon. Gen...

I thank the Minister for that very good reassurance. However, that does show an example of some o...

Specifically, the Chatham House report, to which the hon. Gentleman rightly refers, spoke about n...

That is absolutely correct.

My final point is that the importance of the armed forces’ conf...

It is a real pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Jamie ...

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the local populations near these installations are very proud ...

That was something that came out very clearly when the RAF base closed. There were also concerns ...

Will my hon. Friend give way?

I will come back to my hon. Friend in a minute.

I thought that we had got rid of that situa...

rose—

Well, if the hon. Lady needs to support the hon. Gentleman, I will quite happily give way.

I thank the hon. Gentleman for allowing this intervention. I have no need to support my colleague...

What I will never forgive is an SNP politician who sits in this House and has the opportunity to ...

I fear that we have moved away slightly from the measured tone of this debate. In the spirit of r...

I am very grateful to the Minister for that. In fact, I would have loved it if SNP Members had go...

I am glad this is the consensual part of the hon. Gentleman’s speech, because he will of course a...

There we go—no denial from the SNP that it is making Scotland the highest-taxed part of the Unite...

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

I have already given way to the hon. Gentleman.

I also want to look at aspects other than j...

I congratulate my good and hon. Friend the Member for Gedling (Vernon Coaker) on securing a debat...

I congratulate my hon. Friend on her eloquent speech. Does she agree that the national security a...

I could not agree more with my hon. Friend. At this point, the national security and capability r...

As chair of the all-party parliamentary group on the armed forces, I want to put on the record ho...

You’ll make me blush.

And that’s not easy!

Not too easy. I thank the hon. Member for North Wiltshire (James Gray) very much. One important t...

I am listening in particular to what my hon. Friend is saying about defence procurement and the n...

I could not agree more, but the issue is twofold: it is also about our economic prosperity. Some ...

It is a privilege to rise to speak in such a consensual debate; I congratulate the hon. Member fo...

rose—

I will give way to the hon. Gentleman.

I thank the hon. Gentleman, but that is demonstrably not true. Had he been with me during the man...

If there is a circular argument within the Labour, it shows that it is not united behind an indep...

Does my hon. Friend agree that it is the reckless scaremongering of opponents, such as the Scotti...

Yes, I could not agree more with my hon. Friend. As I have said, we cannot underestimate the effe...

My hon. Friend mentioned accommodation a couple of minutes ago. Will he accept from me that the r...

I could not agree more with my right hon. Friend. In fact, one thing that gets brought up time an...

As many Members will know, my husband served as a Royal Navy officer for 17 years. As a result, I...

It is a great pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Glasgow North West (Carol Monaghan) and to t...

I join others in thanking the hon. Member for Gedling (Vernon Coaker) for securing this debate. I...

I am sorry to interrupt, but this is such an important point about capability. If you have an equ...

I fully agree with that point. Francis Tusa, a defence analyst, said that if anyone believes it i...

I want to provide a bit of clarity on this important point, which is part of our shipbuilding str...

I thank the Minister, who has been constructive, but I would gently say to him that there was a p...

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Gedling (Vernon Coaker) on securing this debate. I r...

Go on then.

Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and then, importantly, Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave in the heart of ...

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that if these ships are procured internationally there will be seri...

Yes. The protection of our sovereign defence capability to both build and design must be preserve...

It is always a pleasure to speak in this House on any issue, but defence is an issue in which I h...

I suspect you may agree, although you would never be ungracious enough to say it, Madam Deputy Sp...

Almost.

For the avoidance of doubt, there is still one hon. Member to come and I have not forgotten him.<...

Who could ever forget him? I say to my hon. Friend that I am terribly sorry—I had not seen him ba...

I do not disagree with the hon. Gentleman’s point—I do not like President Trump any more than he ...

It is, and let us hope it is a one-off. I cannot remember who made this point earlier, but there ...

The hon. Gentleman is making some fair points, if I may say so. Does he accept this one as well? ...

I would be interested in discussing that matter further with the hon. Gentleman. I am not sure wh...

It is very kind of the hon. Gentleman to give way at this late stage. May I just say that I, for ...

It is, absolutely. I suppose it remains to be seen whether the tactics he has so far adopted cont...

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to this magnificent debate in ...

I am interested in what the hon. Gentleman says as I have the same problem. Does he agree that, a...

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that excellent contribution. What he says is absolutely critical. ...

This is one of the few debates in the House that has been not only extremely well mannered, but e...

Let me say once again that the nat tax will make Scotland the highest-taxed part of the United Ki...

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for allowing me to go over the figures again. An Army sergean...

Will the Army sergeant, or member of whichever rank, be paying these tax rates based on where he ...

Where they are based. That is why I said that the squaddies in Scotland will get a tax cut. What ...

Is it not the case that the sergeant my hon. Friend mentions who will be paying a little more tax...

They will benefit from many elements of the social contract. Of course, they already receive some...

The hon. Gentleman has mentioned accommodation. I do not know whether he is aware that Carillion,...

I am very grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for his intervention because he is absolutely righ...

The hon. Gentleman seems to imply that there is some plot or conspiracy involved in splitting up ...

The hon. Gentleman is much more optimistic than me. I have seen just this week, on the European U...

I hope that the hon. Gentleman will see that separating defence from the amalgam that has been cr...

I am amazed that with their combined experience, the hon. Member for North Wiltshire and the righ...

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Gedling (Vernon Coaker) on securing today’s debate. ...

It is a real pleasure and an honour to respond to such a formidable debate, which has been detail...

I apologise to the House for missing today’s debate, but I and my hon. Friend the Member for Sedg...

I welcome the hon. Gentleman to the debate, and it is a pleasure to join him in paying tribute to...

I thank my right hon. and gallant Friend for giving way, and, like many others in this House, I a...

I would be happy to do that. We perhaps take for granted how open our economy is, and how we requ...

I am glad to hear that the Minister is taking the capability review so seriously. I want to ask o...

My hon. Friend makes an important point. As I have said, it is for the Secretary of State to spel...

Will the Minister give way?

I will in a moment.

The House is well aware of my position on the size of the armed forces....

The Minister has just said that we will not be left more vulnerable. On 25 January last year, the...

I am grateful to my right hon. Friend. He asks an operational question about the amphibiosity of ...

Going back to the point made by the Chair of the Defence Committee, if the capability was vital l...

The right hon. Gentleman is trying to pre-empt the capability review and what will follow. All I ...

I thank the Minister for his response, and I thank all my hon. Friends and all hon. Members who h...

On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I wish to correct the record, as it appears I may have...

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. The record requires to be corrected and he has adequately...