Middle East: Deployment of British Armed Forces Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateLord Tugendhat
Main Page: Lord Tugendhat (Conservative - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Tugendhat's debates with the Ministry of Defence
(4 months, 1 week ago)
Lords ChamberMy Lords, we do not comment on comments like that.
My Lords, thanks to our armed services are all very well, but they are now being very much stretched. It would be good to hear something from the Government about increasing the defence budget rather than the taxes that can be lowered.
My Lords, I am sure that most of the House is fully aware of where I sit on this. We have a finite amount of resource within this country, and it is a question of where that gets allocated. We are spending more this year on defence than we have ever spent before; it looks as if it is going to be about 2.3% or £55.6 billion. It would be fantastic to be able to buy more ships and planes and employ a whole lot more people, but the capability and ability of our Armed Forces protect this country extremely well.