Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Cat Eccles Excerpts

Wednesday 5th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Cat Eccles (Stourbridge) (Lab)]

In the uncertain global situation we currently live in, I welcome the announcement of increased defence spending. I am sure it will also be welcomed by 63 Military Intelligence Company in my constituency of Stourbridge. It is based at the Army reserve centre, with minimal permanent staff and more than 90 reservists from across the Black Country and beyond. It was great to see a female officer leading the Remembrance Day parade this year—a celebration of its diversity and strength.

As part of the increased defence spend, we must harness the power and skill of British business. Last week, I visited Welin Lambie, the UK’s leading designer, manufacturer and service provider of davits, winches and lifting appliances for the global marine and offshore industry. Founded in 1901, the business found a home in Brierley Hill in 1989. It proudly employs over 40 local people and trains multiple apprentices each year. I was impressed to hear that it sources nearly all its materials from within a five-mile radius, and it is the leading supplier to the US navy and the US coastguard. Welin Lambie is keen to break into the UK defence market, but when under the previous Government it bid for Ministry of Defence contracts, it narrowly lost out to a Spanish firm.

I also welcome the Government’s continued support for Ukraine. Last year, I had the opportunity to visit, and some of the things I saw and heard will never leave me. We visited a children’s hospital in Kyiv that had been bombed by Russia just a few weeks before, showing that, by targeting civic infrastructure, Russia is not even following the rules of war. I met the strongest and most resilient people who were steadfast in their continued fight against Russian aggression, and Ukrainian MPs who are battling against Russian propaganda and misinformation on a new frontier of digital combat. I also met ordinary people helping one another rebuild their homes and villages, and doctors and nurses treating and rehabilitating the ever-growing number of casualties. On a visit with the mayor in Chernihiv, it was clear that funding to Ukraine is not always reaching the people who need it most—ordinary hard-working Ukrainians—and I urge FCDO Ministers to ensure that funds sent to Ukraine are fairly distributed across the country to the communities that need them most.

It was disappointing to hear that the increased funding will come at the expense of ODA, and I am still not convinced it is the right thing to do. I understand that security at home is of vital importance, but should we as the Labour party really be cutting support to some of the world’s most vulnerable people? There is crucial work happening in developing countries in health, education and climate change, and abandoning that work leaves a void for Russia and China to fill. What does it leave for our support for Gaza, Sudan and beyond at a time when the US is pulling its aid? Investing in international development is an important contribution to security both at home and abroad.