Defence Readiness

David Taylor Excerpts

Wednesday 20th May 2026 Commons Chamber

[David Taylor (Hemel Hempstead) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Wetherby and Easingwold (Sir Alec Shelbrooke), who I know is a vocal champion of tackling antisemitism, which I will focus on in my remarks.

In Tower Hamlets last week, a young man was filmed saying the most chilling antisemitic words:

“The Jews, you’re going to be beheaded one by one, you dirty Jews.”

He has been identified and arrested, and I thank the Met police for their action. I have picked that as just one example of the crisis we face on antisemitism. From the Golders Green terrorist attack to the Hatzola ambulance arson attack, these incidents continue to rise. What is behind this antisemitism? What radicalises individuals to act in this way? Who is responsible for these attacks?

It should not need saying, but I will spell it out. Jewish people in the UK are not responsible for the actions of the Netanyahu Government, and antisemitism did not start on 7 October. Israel had not yet begun its operations in Gaza in response to Hamas’s attack when the deputy leader of the Green party filmed a video saying that people should

“support the right of indigenous people to fight back”.

Antisemitism is often called the oldest hatred. I welcome His Majesty the King’s specific mention of antisemitism and the need to take urgent action to ensure that all communities feel safe. I welcome the commitment that the Prime Minister himself has shown in tackling antisemitism, both in our party and in government, including through the recent summit in Downing Street with the Jewish community. I further welcome the £25 million in additional funding to help protect Jewish communities, bringing the total to nearly £60 million.

I agree with the Board of Deputies, which calls for an end to incitement at pro-Palestinian protests, where antisemitic hate speech frequently takes place. It has also called for the use of public order powers to restrict and ban marches where necessary. If we look at the marches last weekend, speakers from one of the march organisers, Palestinian Forum in Britain, told the crowd that Israel is a “Zionist cancer”. Meanwhile, across London at the other, far-right march, a banner was proudly displayed that read, “End the Zionist occupation of Britain”. Perhaps they could have saved the taxpayer the £4.5 million policing bill by combining their marches.

Let us be clear: there is another major driver of antisemitism in this country, and that is the Islamist regime in Iran. The group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya claimed responsibility for the ambulance arson attack among others. The US Department of Justice now believes that it was a front designed to carry out terrorist attacks at the behest of the IRGC and its proxies.

Meanwhile, we have Iran’s PressTV as well as its Spanish mouthpiece HispanTV. Its UK based show “Palestine Declassified” has regularly platformed conspiracy theorists and targeted Jewish schools in Britain as well as charities and individuals. I repeat my call for financial sanctions to be placed on them, as the US, Australia, Canada and the EU have done. That would close a legal loophole that currently allows them to pay UK nationals and operate through intermediaries without restriction.

Connected to that is Rad Media World, a company with links to Iran that The Sunday Telegraph just reported is using the skilled worker visa scheme completely legally. I hope that the Foreign Office will revoke that ability as well as track individuals who came here through that scheme.

There is also the issue of the charities that the Shawcross review has linked to Iran. In the interests of time, I will not repeat what I have said before, but I agree with the call of my hon. Friend the Member for Bristol North East (Damien Egan) for the Charity Commission to have extra resource to go after those charities and close them down.

Along with other colleagues across the House, I have been campaigning for proscription of the IRGC for some time. I was therefore delighted to see the announcement in the King’s Speech of the tackling state threats Bill to give the Home Secretary new powers to clamp down on foreign states and organisations posing a threat to our national security. I hope that will come alongside further and faster action to tackle the Iranian threat to us—as we have tried to do with Putin—including against its vast property empire in London and against its spreading of hatred and disinformation on social media, which is designed to sow discord and division in the UK. Are we robustly analysing the Companies House register to ensure that Bank Melli and its many subsidiaries are not dodging sanctions simply by changing their names at Companies House? Should we also be talking more about the VAJA—Iran’s intelligence agency—and its activities in the UK?

I urge my Government to ensure that as soon as the new law is passed, it will be immediately acted on. By that I mean that our intelligence officers must fully understand the powers available to them through not only the new legislation but existing legislation. This week, I had the pleasure of hosting Jonathan Hackett, a marine veteran and expert on counterintelligence and intelligence operations. He made the point that, sometimes on the ground, some of our intelligence officers are not fully aware of the powers available to them. It is crucial both that they are aware of the powers they have to take action and that they have the resources and capabilities to do so.

Oral Answers to Questions

David Taylor Excerpts

Monday 30th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[John Healey]

No one could describe the decision to buy back 36,000 military family homes from private hands as a short-term fix, nobody could describe the consumer charter setting out basic housing rights and standards as a short-term fix, and no one could describe the housing strategy review we have got going as a short-term fix. The decent homes standard is one standard; I think we can be doing better by our armed forces families.

[David Taylor (Hemel Hempstead) (Lab)]

2. What steps he is taking to support veterans in Hertfordshire.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Minister for Veterans and People (Al Carns)]

First, I would like to recognise Mr Roy Briggs, a world war two veteran who recently passed. Those of us on both sides of the House salute our greatest generation.

As the Secretary of State said, we recently announced Op Valour, the veterans’ support system, which is underpinned by £50 million over three years, and I launched the north-west England pilot last week. This is an institutionally resilient system—it is not a sticking plaster—that will reform the system at the local, the regional and the national level. When we combine that with the covenant broadening from three Government Departments to 14 just on Saturday, that is a significant increase to both veterans’ and armed forces community support.

[David Taylor]

I thank the Minister for his answer and for his kind words about Roy Briggs. His family and I are also grateful for letter that he wrote to them. I had the privilege of attending his funeral last week. He was a real servant to our country, having flown in many brave missions over Europe. He was part of one of the RAF’s first ever humanitarian missions when dropping essential food over the Netherlands and he also flew many missions in RAF bombers.

I know that the Government are doing various things to try to support veterans. Could the Minister outline the further steps that the Government can take to support organisations that support veterans such as the Royal British Legion as well as smaller organisations such as the Hemel armed forces and veterans breakfast club?

[Al Carns]

The armed forces covenant trust fund is one of the mechanisms we use to support the charitable sector, but we must also step back and look holistically at the fact that there are 1,730 armed forces charities in the UK. Op Valour will help to synthesise that, get more bang for buck and ensure that veterans get the right support where and when they need it.

UK Military Base Protection

David Taylor Excerpts

Monday 23rd June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Luke Pollard]

Alive to your words, Mr Deputy Speaker, let me just say that I agree with the hon. Gentleman, as I agreed with my hon. Friend the Member for North East Derbyshire (Louise Jones).

It is so important that, when we make the case for respecting our armed forces, we recognise that those who serve are not able to respond to comments made in the political arena. They are prevented from doing so, and Members of this House must therefore have our armed forces’ back. We must be able to call out behaviour that is not acceptable, just as we back our forces. I hope that all serving members of our armed forces will be able to see today the full-throated and full-throttle support of this House for those who serve.

[David Taylor (Hemel Hempstead) (Lab)]

I commend the Government for the swift action they took to proscribe Palestine Action after its brazen actions at Brize Norton. I would like to raise concerns about another related group called the Islamic Human Rights Commission. It has expressed support for proscribed terrorist groups and used UK platforms to spread anti-British propaganda. There is strong evidence that it is directly linked to the Iranian regime. Indeed, placards celebrating the ayatollah and talking of being on “the right side of history” were seen at protests at the weekend. What assessment have the Government made of threats to national security beyond Palestine Action, including from this group?

[Luke Pollard]

I thank my hon. Friend for that question. I am afraid that a Government Minister’s usual line about proscription is that we do not comment on it except when, as today, I have been able to confirm that a group has been proscribed following the Home Secretary’s decision. I encourage my hon. Friend to have a conversation with the Security Minister, who is sitting next to me.

War in Ukraine: Third Anniversary

David Taylor Excerpts

Thursday 27th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[David Taylor (Hemel Hempstead) (Lab)]

I thank the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith) for securing the debate and for his bravery in going as far as Kharkiv. I admire his work and advocacy. I associate myself with everything that hon. Members have said, especially about the bravery of the men and women of Ukraine, who are standing up to Putin every day and fighting not just for their own freedom, but for our freedom.

My hon. Friend the Member for Bolton West (Phil Brickell) and I have just come back from a week in Ukraine, where we had an opportunity to speak to a number of MPs, Ministers, industry leaders and those in civil society. I will focus remarks on the need for drone technology, which is paramount to us winning in Ukraine. As many hon. Members have said, we face an existential crisis. The increase in defence spending to 2.5% of GDP is important, but it is vital that we get beyond that, to 3% and more. From my trip last week and from my previous visit, it is clear that Putin is not going to stop at Ukraine’s borders. If Ukraine falls, then NATO countries, and Baltic countries in particular, are in the firing line. It is important that our constituents understand that this war is not about other people; it is a war about us as well.

Turning to drone technology, in a meeting with Deputy Defence Minister Sergiy Boyev, I was told:

“Ukraine needs a fleet of drones that possess the same characteristics as the Kalashnikov.”

What he meant by that, as was reflected back to me by the chair of the Ukrainian Economic Affairs Committee, Dmytro Natalukha MP, who I know other hon. Members have met, was that Ukraine needs something like a Kalashnikov—a flying Kalashnikov, if you will—because it is standard issue, easy to manufacture, reliant on available common parts and comparatively cheap. Such technology alone will not match the existential crisis we all face, but it could play a vital role in the war. However, in order to get such technology, the drone sector needs to be able to access UK capital. We need more joint ventures between our defence companies in the UK and Ukrainian defence companies.

I want to underline why these drones are so important. There are now many different types of drones. There are massive drones, like the ones the Iranians are unfortunately supplying to Putin’s forces, such as the Shahed drone. When I was in Ukraine, I spent some time in a bunker because at one point there were 50 Shahed drones overhead. There are also drones that are necessary to hold Ukrainian positions and to help the Ukrainians to advance.

As the security adviser and expert James Rushton, whom I had the opportunity to meet while I was in Ukraine, told me, small recon drones such as the DJI Mavic are the difference between an entire platoon of Ukrainian troops surviving or not. They can help the Ukrainians to know if the Russians are coming over the horizon, so they can get away in good time. The converse is true, as they can also help the Ukrainians to hold positions and to advance. It is important that we get to a place where we are able to provide more capital to Ukrainian companies, to help them with the parts they need and, collectively with European allies, to help them produce some standard and cheaper types of drones, as they will be vital in the war.

Oral Answers to Questions

David Taylor Excerpts

Monday 10th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[John Healey]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend’s action in his constituency. The UK has a proud unity on Ukraine, and it has given a proud welcome to Ukrainians under the Homes for Ukraine scheme since day one of Putin’s illegal full-scale invasion. As my hon. Friend says, nearly three years into the conflict, Valentine’s day is a useful marker to recognise the warmth of welcome from the UK people and the struggle and fight that the Ukrainian people—military and civilian alike—are waging for their freedom and their future.

[David Taylor (Hemel Hempstead) (Lab)]

8. What steps he is taking to help increase recruitment to the armed forces.

[Peter Swallow (Bracknell) (Lab)]

20. What steps he is taking to help increase recruitment to the armed forces.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Minister for the Armed Forces (Luke Pollard)]

The Government are delivering for Defence by addressing the deep retention and recruitment crisis that we inherited from the Conservatives. Last week I announced more detail on a brand-new fast-track cyber entry to boost UK cyber-defence, bolstering our capabilities in response to the growing threats and addressing a global shortage of cyber-talent. I also announced the award of a new contract for a tri-service armed forces recruiting service.

[David Taylor]

West Herts college in my constituency offers a great selection of courses, including computing courses that offer a pathway to a career in cyber-security. For young people in Hemel Hempstead considering a career in that field to defend our country, can the Minister outline further details of the steps that he took last week to boost recruitment to cyber-security in this country?

[Luke Pollard]

I am grateful for the enthusiasm of young people in my hon. Friend’s constituency for a career in cyber. Last week, the new cyber direct entry pathway for our armed forces was opened for the Royal Air Force and the Navy—the Army entry will come online next year. That allows people to join directly to pursue a career in cyber. By changing the entry requirements, it will bring on board the cyber-expertise that we need to keep our country safe. The frontline of the future is not tomorrow; it is today—it is the cyber-frontline. Young people across the nation should look on the Royal Navy and RAF websites at a career in cyber. It is well paid and will keep our country safe.

Ukraine

David Taylor Excerpts

Thursday 19th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Luke Pollard]

I thank my fellow Devon MP for his support for Ukraine. It is certainly right that the increased proliferation of drones is a hallmark of the conflict. Between 500 and 1,000 drones—a substantial number—are used every day on the frontline, and they are being used in an incredibly intense environment of electronic warfare and jamming. That is why we need to continue to iterate and evolve in the support we provide to Ukraine, making sure that those drones can fly through EW jamming, reach their targets and project power in those areas.

We are continuing to strengthen support for developments not only in Ukrainian drone production, but in the production of drones across the rest of Europe. That is why we work so closely with the drone capability coalition among our European partners, to create that enhanced industrial base as well as learn the lessons of what technology is working, bearing in mind that that iteration on the frontline means that we need to keep adapting and enhancing our drone offer to Ukraine every few months.

[David Taylor (Hemel Hempstead) (Lab)]

Merry Christmas to you and the team, Madam Deputy Speaker.

As other hon. Members have done, I commend the Minister for the statement, and especially the funding announcements made today. I thank him for reminding my constituents and all our constituents of the urgent need to support Ukraine and for reminding us that our national security is very much bound up in Ukraine’s national security. It is fantastic that this new money has been announced. Do the Government have a further update on the proceeds of the sale of Chelsea football club and the £2.5 billion? I am sure that the Minister will agree that the sooner we can get that money unlocked, the more military and humanitarian support we can unleash.

[Luke Pollard]

The Government are working hard to ensure that the proceeds of the sale of Chelsea football club reach humanitarian causes in Ukraine as soon as possible. The proceeds are currently frozen in a UK bank account until a new independent foundation is established to manage and distribute the money. Officials continue to hold discussions with Mr Abramovich’s representatives, experts and international partners, and they will double down on efforts to reach a solution. We are fighting every inch of the way to ensure that money from Russian assets goes straight back to supporting Ukrainians.

Oral Answers to Questions

David Taylor Excerpts

Monday 14th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Al Carns]

I thank the right hon. Member for bringing that up. Given the amount of his experience, I would love to sit down with him and the chair of the War Widows Association to talk this through in more detail.

[David Taylor (Hemel Hempstead) (Lab)]

In May, I was privileged to join a group called Help99 in driving some pick-up trucks and other military vehicles to Kyiv

for the use of Ukrainian soldiers on the frontline. Will the Minister meet me to discuss how we can make it easier for such groups to deliver vehicles, which are so desperately needed?

[Luke Pollard]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend and parliamentary colleagues in all parties for the work they are doing in their constituencies to support our friends in Ukraine. I would be very happy to meet him to see what we can do to support their work further, because we will support Ukraine for as long as it takes.