Ukraine

James Cleverly Excerpts

Monday 3rd March 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

First, I am of course talking to President Trump about security guarantees—that formed a large part of our discussion on Thursday and our subsequent discussions. I think it is right that Europe does the forward leaning on this. We have to do more on security guarantees, but those guarantees need a US backing, and that is the very discussion that I am having.

On the question of spending, across Europe in this era, we now have to step up on capability, co-ordination and spending. That did form part of our discussions yesterday.

[Mr James Cleverly (Braintree) (Con)]

I find myself in the strange and rather uncomfortable position of very much agreeing with the Prime Minister on everything he has said today. While I often take great delight in criticism of the Government, the Prime Minister did not really put a foot wrong this weekend.

However, he does need to go further. The small increase in defence spending that he announced was welcome, but fundamentally, we need a gear shift on this. I echo the point made by my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition that when—and it will be when, not if—he has to make some really difficult decisions about balancing defence spending against domestic expenditure, we will not try to play politics. We will support him, because we need to send a message now to our friends in Ukraine and to potential aggressors around the world that we take our defence, the defence of our values, and the defence of our friends seriously.

[The Prime Minister]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for the unity across the House, and he is absolutely right. It sends a message to those who want to challenge our values when they see this House united, whether on Ukraine or defence spending. We have to face this era with confidence and with unity across this House, wherever we can. It has been good to have him agreeing with me—we should do this more often.