Strength of the UK’s Armed Forces

Sadly we are nowhere near another election at this point. We are at this stage in the parliamenta...

Would my right hon. Friend care to remind the hon. Member for somewhere in Essex—the hon. Member ...

I would, but my right hon. Friend has just done so for me; I am pleased that it is on the record....

Will my right hon. Friend give way?

I will give way one more time, but then—conscious that nearly 40 Back-Bench Members wish to speak...

The hon. Member for Harwich and North Essex (Sir Bernard Jenkin) mentioned budgets, but is not it...

My right hon. Friend is right, of course. There has been an £8 billion real-terms cut to the defe...

Before I call the Minister, I should tell the House that there will be an initial time limit on B...

I thank the shadow Secretary of State for the tribute he paid to the Duke of Edinburgh—one with w...

My hon. Friend talks about adapting to the threat. We have the technological advantage in Afghani...

As the shadow Secretary of State noted, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State is not able t...

The Minister was slightly dismissive of looking at the arrays of traditional vehicles. What does ...

If the right hon. Gentleman will allow, I will make some progress with my speech, because I had f...

I know that the Minister is a friend of Northern Ireland, but recruitment in Northern Ireland has...

The hon. Gentleman is entirely right that Northern Ireland is a rich recruiting ground for people...

The Minister has outlined a concept predicated on the armed forces fighting an all-out war—a war ...

I thank my right hon. and gallant Friend for his intervention, but I do not agree with his analys...

I need to clarify the difference between what the rangers will do and what our Royal Marines do, ...

I am afraid that my right hon. Friend is not right in what he thinks the rangers will do. The dis...

I join the Minister and the shadow Secretary of State, the right hon. Member for Wentworth and De...

We now have a formal time limit of four minutes. I call the Chairman of the Defence Committee, To...

I will not tire of saying this, but I feel there is a 1930s feel to the world today. The threat p...

May I place on record my sympathy for the family of Cheryl Gillan, our colleague? She was not in ...

May I warmly endorse what the hon. Member for Rochdale (Tony Lloyd) just said about our late, dea...

This is an important and obviously very timely debate—timely because of the Government’s review o...

Defence reviews and the subsequent spending priorities are not abstract events but relate to iden...

First, may we record that on this day 70 years ago the great trade union leader, Labour Foreign S...

I very much share the concerns expressed by the right hon. Member for Warley (John Spellar), but ...

The hon. Gentleman will recall that that vote was taken about five years later than it should hav...

I think the coalition had something to do with that. I warned David Cameron about that before we ...

We now go by video link to Marie Rimmer, with a time limit of three minutes.

5.30 pm

The British military is currently engaged in its biggest ever—[Inaudible.]

Order. We cannot hear the hon. Lady. Shall we try audio only?

[Inaudible.]—proving once again that they are the ultimate emergency service.—[Inaudible.]

Order. I am sorry, but we will try to come back to the hon. Lady later, because the sound quality...

The additional £24 billion in the defence resource needs to be recognised and comes after a numbe...

Our withdrawal from the EU, the rise of China and the threat posed by Russia has meant that the s...

Order. We have to leave it there; I am sorry, Dan. We will now return to Marie Rimmer.

5.37...

The British military are currently engaged in their biggest ever homeland military operation in p...

Order. Sorry Marie; we have to leave it there.

5.40 pm

It is galling that time and again we hear from the Secretary of State and his Ministers that our ...

I welcome today’s debate, but I want Members in this Chamber, particularly on the Opposition Benc...

In 1962, Dean Acheson, the former Secretary of State, said:

“Great Britain has lost an empi...

The strength of our armed forces does not just rest in the capability of our military hardware. I...

Order. I am terribly sorry, but time is up.

5.51 pm

I want to make two simple points. The work done by the armed forces during the pandemic was welco...

I ask Members who are participating remotely to keep an eye on the clock and have an independent ...

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker; I will endeavour not to be cut off.

It is a pleasure to speak...

I am sorry to have to disagree with my very good friend. We are reducing the capability of our ar...

I thank my right hon. and gallant Friend—my very good friend—for his intervention. I would never ...

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in this very important debate.

I wish to urge th...

I will focus, perhaps slightly unusually in the debate, on the impact of climate change on our na...

It is a great privilege to speak in this key debate, Mr Deputy Speaker, although the concept of s...

I remember that in 2010 we cut the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers hugely, and said we ...

I could not agree more with my right hon. Friend, as a Corps man myself. It is imperative that we...

I welcome the Opposition’s shift in wanting to have a debate on the strength of the armed forces ...

I rise to support the motion on the Order Paper, not least because I believe that Conservative pr...

Order.

6.13 pm

Mr Deputy Speaker,

“I hear it a lot on the Tory benches, this idea of a country that ruled ...

One really positive advance that we have made this century has been our recognition of the obliga...

Hull and east Yorkshire has always been a high recruitment area for the armed forces and I give m...

The strength of our armed forces is in the people who serve in them, and of course this Governmen...

It has taken just 16 months for the Prime Minister to break his election promise not to reduce th...

I get the idea of grey-zone warfare. I studied strategy; I realise that we cannot fight the next ...

And they’re all Fijians.

And indeed, as my good friend says, they are Fijian. Increasingly, those battalions will have to ...

It is a privilege to be called in this debate, particularly because Burnley and Padiham have a ve...

Order. Sorry about that, but time is up.

6.34 pm

It is a pleasure to speak in this debate; I was not entirely sure that I would get the opportunit...

I thank the Opposition for securing this important debate in which I have much interest—it is a m...

Let me start by paying a few tributes. If my hon. Friend the Member for Hyndburn (Sara Britcliffe...

Forgive me for intervening yet again, but may I point out that, on most of our operations, we can...

I thank my right hon. and gallant Friend for his point because it leads me on to what I was about...

We have to go to the wind-ups now.

6.44 pm

I associate myself with the remarks and tributes made by the shadow Defence Secretary, the Minist...

It has been an interesting debate. As you well know, Mr Deputy Speaker, I thoroughly enjoy any de...

Will the Minister give way?

No, I am not going to give way. [Interruption.] No, no, no.

On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. I will take your advice, but is it in order to call a Mem...

If I had heard anything that was out of order, I would certainly have called it into order. It is...

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I am getting used to it now.

The hon. Member for Barnsley Cen...

I am now going to put the Question, and you will be expected to vote the way you are shouting. Cl...