Ministry of Defence Procurement: UK-manufactured Products

Lord Cryer Excerpts

Tuesday 18th November 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Humphreys (LD)]

My Lords—

[Lord Cryer (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms and Chief Whip (Lord Kennedy of Southwark) (Lab Co-op)]

We will hear from the Lib Dem Benches.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Coaker (Lab)]

On the specific question of the defence investment plan, that will be published this year, so the noble Baroness and the House will not have to wait too long. It will lay out the investment decisions we are going to make. On the basis of a growing defence budget, that defence investment plan will lay out the sorts of capabilities we need and the decisions that will need to be made to ensure that we have war readiness. We need to learn from what has happened in Ukraine and look at the wars of the future. The defence investment plan will look to fight that war to ensure that we are war ready.

[Lord Cryer (Lab)]

My Lords, in the two or three years after the end of the Cold War, around 150,000 jobs were lost in defence manufacturing. Everyone is right in hindsight, but now, looking back, that looks extremely short-sighted. Is there not now a need to reverse that process and expand our manufacturing base, at least as far as weapons manufacture is concerned, in this insecure world?

[Lord Coaker (Lab)]

My noble friend makes a really good point, and of course he is right to say that. The total number of direct and indirect jobs supported through MoD expenditure with UK industry a couple of years ago was 272,000, which was up from 244,000 the year before—so defence is growing. Is it growing fast enough? We would all like to see it growing more quickly. But there is no doubt that the development of a UK defence industry is crucial to our defence and the defence of our allies.

Future Defence Capability

Lord Cryer Excerpts

Wednesday 26th March 2025 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Cryer]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the United Kingdom’s future defence capability following the recently announced increases in defence spending.

[The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Coaker) (Lab)]

My Lords, the strategic defence review is well under way and has been considering all aspects of defence, including the capabilities required by UK defence to meet the challenges, threats and opportunities of the 21st century. The recently announced accelerated programme to increase defence spending is considered a critical step in realising the review's ambition to transform our Armed Forces for this new era. The review will place NATO first and strengthen our alliances and partnerships while making defence central to the security, economic growth and prosperity of the United Kingdom.

[Lord Cryer (Lab)]

My Lords, I am very grateful to the Minister. Can he say something about the preparedness of the Armed Forces in all their guises when it comes to the threat from one of the most evil and fascistic regimes in the world? I am talking about the regime in Iran and its proxies who spread their poison and terror across the globe, bearing in mind that one of those proxies was responsible for the most deadly massacre of Jewish people since 1945?

[Lord Coaker (Lab)]

My noble friend raises an extremely important point about Iran and its proxies. We will continue to work with our international partners to hold Iran to account for its destabilising activity, the things that it has done in the Middle East and, indeed, the threats it poses on UK soil. To do that, the increased defence spending that we have announced today will help us to deal with this very real threat. Let Iran make no mistake: we will both deter and respond to any threat that it or its proxies pose to us. I thank my noble friend again for his question.