Military Covenant

Jim Cunningham Excerpts

Wednesday 16th February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Murphy]

No, I have already given way to the hon. Gentleman so I shall make some progress.

On the military covenant, the amendment to the Armed Forces Bill that the Secretary of State and his friends were intent on rejecting said:

“The Secretary of State must by Order through Statutory Instrument establish a written Military Covenant (henceforth referred to as “the Covenant”) which sets out the definition of the word “covenant”, used in Clause 2, line 6 of the Armed Forces Bill. The definition would set out the principles against which the annual armed forces covenant report would be judged.”

That is the amendment that the Government have found so dangerous and refused to accept in Committee. That is the amendment that they claim would create a whole set of new justiciable rights when it would do no such thing.

[Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)]

Does my right hon. Friend recall that the deficit that the Government now blame us for was accumulated over nearly 30 years, so they are as responsible for it as anyone? Does he agree that they should not have signed up to a covenant that they never intended to carry out?

[Mr Murphy]

The fact is that prior to the financial collapse across the world and the banking crisis, we had pared down the debt. [Hon. Members: “Oh.”] There is no point in that crowd on the Government Front Bench moaning about this: throughout that period they demanded ever more spending on our armed forces. They cannot deny that.

Returning to the military covenant—