Future Capability of the Armed Forces

Lord Forbes of Newcastle Excerpts

Thursday 16th July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Forbes of Newcastle (Lab)]

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Harlech, on securing this debate, which is essential to the future of our country. I thank him for his service, as I thank all our Armed Forces volunteers for theirs. I associate myself with many of the comments he made in his opening remarks.

I begin with a simple truth: the world has already changed, but our defence capabilities have not kept pace. The threats we face are no longer neatly divided into war and peace, foreign and domestic, military and civilian; they are hybrid, continuous, complex and aimed at undermining the very resilience of our society. Across Europe and beyond, nations have recognised this shift. Finland’s total defence, Sweden’s civil military integration, Israel’s Home Front Command and Singapore’s multi-pillar resilience doctrine all demonstrate one lesson: the defence of the nation is no longer the job of the Armed Forces alone; it is a job for the whole of society. Our Armed Forces remain world class, but they are being asked to do too much with too little in systems designed for a different era. We cannot meet today’s threats with yesterday’s structures. With the winds of political change in the air, I want to argue for three radical shifts.

First, we must build a whole-of-nation resilience—not a patchwork of agencies or a set of disconnected emergency plans, but a statutory, integrated approach that brings together defence, civil contingencies, local government, critical national infrastructure and the private sector. Finland’s National Emergency Supply Agency shows just what is possible: strategic stockpiles, shared planning and clear duties on every sector. We need the same here: a UK resilience agency with real authority, real resources and real accountability.

Secondly, we must fuse civilian expertise with military capabilities. Our Armed Forces need engineers, cyber specialists, medics, logisticians and data scientists, but we cannot recruit and retain all of them inside the military. Other nations have solved this through dual-track service approaches, where civilians can be mobilised rapidly into defence roles that match their professional skills. I believe we should create a UK national reserve: a modern, flexible force that draws on civilian expertise, is trained for crises, both domestic and international, and is integrated into defence planning. That would be not conscription but a national capability-building exercise for every community and every nation in this country.

Thirdly, we must redesign command and co-ordination for the hybrid age. Israel’s Home Front Command integrates civilian protection directly into military planning, Japan’s self-defence forces train routinely with civilian disaster agencies, and Norway’s civil and military co-operation doctrine plans for peacetime, crisis and conflict. We need a UK equivalent: a joint civil-military resilience command, responsible for dealing with grey-zone threats, infrastructure protection and rapid mobilisation in times of crisis. It should sit alongside the military’s Strategic Command with equal status and a clear mandate.

If we are serious about future capability, we must stop imagining defence as something that happens over there. Cyber attacks, disinformation campaigns and the undermining of trust in institutions is all happening now to our people, our economy and our country. Our Armed Forces will remain essential, but they cannot and should not be asked to defend the nation alone. Modern threats demand that we build a system where every sector, every skill and every citizen contributes to the security and resilience of this United Kingdom. That is the scale of ambition we need and the future capability that our times demand.

King’s Speech

Lord Forbes of Newcastle Excerpts

Thursday 21st May 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Forbes of Newcastle (Lab)]

My Lords, the gracious Speech puts national security where it belongs, at the centre of government. I welcome that, but the question before us is not only what we spend—it is how we think and act; how we organise a whole-society defence; how we turn resilience from a slogan into collective preparedness; and how we convert defence investment into regional growth.

The strategic defence review is clear: the UK faces a more complex set of threats than at any time in recent decades. Cyber attacks on critical infrastructure and major employers, hostile activity against subsea cables and satellites, biological risks and pressure on food and energy security are not hypothetical scenarios; they are real and happening now. My noble friend Lord Robertson of Port Ellen warned recently that we are underinvesting and deciding too slowly in our defence expenditure. I fully share his analysis and concerns, but the answer is not only more and better Armed Forces—it is a more resilient country.

Whole-society resilience means three things. The first is services that function when systems fail, in particular public services that know what to do when the screens go blank and the phones go down. The second is infrastructure, particularly power, water and transport, that is designed to withstand disruption and keep on working. The third is citizens who know the basics of preparedness.

On the last point, we need to be frank and practical with the public. As my noble friend Lady Antrobus has said, our Nordic neighbours show how. Sweden’s If Crisis or War Comes booklet tells every household how to cope if the power fails or networks go down. The advice is simple: be able to look after your household for at least a week, plan to have enough water and food that does not need refrigeration, medicines, cash, a battery radio, warm clothing and a family contact plan. Finland goes further, teaching civil preparedness in schools. This is not alarmism—it is adult citizenship in a modern age. I am not suggesting for a moment that we face imminent invasion, but we must also recognise that we have grown used to systems—food, banking, power, fuel, water—that never fail. That confidence is in many ways a measure of our progress as a nation, but we have allowed our collective capacity for self-reliance to atrophy, and that has left us brittle.

Complacency is a weakness, and it diminishes our collective strength and resolve in the eyes of those who seek to do us harm. This, in turn, increases our vulnerability and the likelihood of such continued attacks. We must address this calmly and with clear public guidance, in a way that treats people as partners, not passive observers. Reform of local resilience forums is an opportunity to wire this in: local government, blue light services, businesses, universities and civic groups planning together, exercising together, communicating together. Resilience done well is not about fear but about confidence: the confidence that comes from preparation and practice.

Members of your Lordships’ House will know that I have spoken previously about the economic dividend of defence. Done smartly, defence spending can be a powerful engine of regional growth. Advanced manufacturing in the north-east, cyber and AI in the Midlands, and green maritime on our coasts are not add-ons to our defence strategy; they are its drivers of innovation. But the system must be fit for purpose. Today SMEs face procurement designed for primes. Universities sit on world-class research without clear routes to its practical adoption. Skills providers need the ability to plan and engage effectively for the long term. Economic growth and national security are not competing priorities; they are the same priority.

I recognise that in parts of my party there is some scepticism about this agenda, shaped by history, but the threats described in the SDR are not those of the 1980s or the early 1990s—they are the real and present threats of now. The threats are real and growing, and the price of inaction will far exceed the cost of preparedness. The gracious Speech sets a direction; now we must match it with pace by building resilience locally, unlocking defence investment for growth regionally, and acting nationally at the speed the world now demands.

Defence Industrial Strategy 2025: Economic Growth and Job Creation

Lord Forbes of Newcastle Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd March 2026 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Forbes of Newcastle]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the potential impact of the Defence Industrial Strategy 2025 on promoting economic growth and job creation in English regions and devolved nations.

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

My Lords, investment in defence is investment in jobs and growth in every nation and region in the UK. That is why we have invested £773 million in the defence industrial strategy, which will position the UK as a global leader in defence technology by backing UK businesses and harnessing the sector’s strengths. There are five defence growth deals, revamping our procurement framework and launching an ambitious skills programme. The defence industrial strategy will create new good-quality and highly skilled jobs across the UK and drive economic growth.

[Lord Forbes of Newcastle (Lab)]

My Lords, in warmly welcoming the Government’s commitment to significantly increasing defence expenditure and the opportunity to use this lever to promote economic growth, especially through the development of dual-use technologies and extended supply chains, I draw my noble friend the Minister’s attention to the fact that only seven of 14 mayoral combined authorities have so far produced local growth plans that explicitly name defence and national security as priority growth sectors for their area. Does he share my view that better connections between combined authorities and the Ministry of Defence are required to ensure that there are real and tangible economic benefits in every nation and region to increase defence spending? Will he ensure that His Majesty’s Government engage systematically and effectively with regional leaders to ensure that this welcome investment creates the maximum number of jobs possible?

[Lord Coaker (Lab)]

I agree with that. It is really important for the defence industrial strategy that we liaise with all the devolved Governments and, as my noble friend says, with local devolved councils and mayoral authorities. Kim McGuinness is the Mayor of the North East, in my noble friend’s part of the country, and I know of the work that he has done with local authorities. It is essential that we work with them to deliver the economic growth that we want across all the regions of England and nations of the UK.