Armed Forces Bill

Johanna Baxter Excerpts

Committee of the whole House
Tuesday 2nd June 2026 Commons Chamber

I commend this Bill; overall, it does things that we all want to see and, as is the tradition with Bills of this sort, there is no great controversy between the two sides of the House. I wish it well.

[Johanna Baxter (Paisley and Renfrewshire South) (Lab)]

I begin by offering my deepest thoughts and prayers to the family, friends and colleagues of the British soldier who tragically died in Iraq on Sunday.

The world we live in today is more perilous, volatile and unpredictable than at any point in our living memory. We saw that last night, when Russia fired more than 650 drones and 73 missiles into Ukraine, killing 13 people and injuring more than 100, including a little girl aged only 11. In this fragmented world, a strong, modern, highly capable military is not a luxury; if we are to secure Britain’s future, it is a necessity. National security must always come above all else. That is why I strongly welcome the decisive steps that this Labour Government continue to take to rebuild our defence after it was hollowed out by the Conservative party, and why I support the Bill and the Government amendments tabled to it.

Week after week, this Labour Government are getting on with the job of investing in our defence. Just yesterday, the Government announced a vital new munitions deal, supporting 700 jobs in Belfast. Last week, the Government signed a joint missile programme with Poland and a new Swedish fighter jet deal to strengthen Ukraine and boost British jobs. We do those things not simply because those are security agreements and deals, but because it is the moral duty of this Government. Doing so also creates highly skilled jobs right across the United Kingdom, including for the people of my Paisley and Renfrewshire South constituency.

The substance of the Bill begins the urgent work of undoing years of systemic damage. I will focus my comments on two areas where the legislation delivers the deepest, most vital changes: defence housing and justice for victims of abuse. First, I warmly welcome the armed forces covenant, for which the Royal British Legion has been calling for more than a decade, and which is finally being delivered in full by this Labour Government. In the words of the Royal British Legion, our armed forces covenant “will ensure the needs of the Armed Forces community are considered when making decisions”. It goes on to say that it welcomes our decision to fully implement the covenant in law. This matters immensely, because it delivers directly on our manifesto commitments to our armed services.

The brave men and women who dedicate their lives to defending our country deserve far more than our gratitude. They deserve the peace of mind that while they are serving our country around the world, their families are safe in secure, high-quality homes. Instead, we inherited a shocking legacy. Between April 2022 and December 2023, service family accommodation fell into disrepair: more than 20,000 heating failures were reported in military homes, nearly 7,000 properties completely lost hot water and more than 1,100 families were forced out of their homes entirely due to severe maintenance issues. Is it any wonder, then, that the previous Government missed their military recruitment targets every single year that they were in office? If we cannot guarantee a soldier that their child will not grow up in a house without a working heating system, how can we expect them to stay in the ranks?

That is why I welcome this Government’s commitment to a £9 billion investment in defence housing, the measures set out in the Bill to establish the Defence Housing Service, and the generational renewal of military housing, which will see nine in 10 military homes modernised or upgraded. The Royal British Legion has rightly welcomed the Defence Housing Service, calling it crucial to ensuring that armed forces personnel and their families are provided with the high-quality housing they deserve. The strategy will directly benefit our forces, including those living in the 43 service accommodation homes in my constituency. That is no less than our personnel and their families deserve.

Secondly, I strongly welcome the Bill’s protections for victims of sexual harm and domestic abuse. Every single victim of sexual harm deserves justice, yet for too long, the experiences of too many victims have been ignored. The Bill will change that. By introducing a strict legal duty on commanding officers to report serious offences to civilian authorities and the service police, we are ensuring that there can be no scope for anyone to look the other way. We are ensuring that, when those heinous crimes have been committed, nobody can say, “I didn’t know.”

The Bill will give the service police increased powers for their investigations and the service courts more powers to deal with perpetrators and improve the experience of victims. We are bringing our system into line with the civilian sector by introducing service domestic abuse protection orders and service stalking protection orders, and by strengthening sexual harm prevention orders and sexual risk orders. By doing that, we are ensuring that we protect victims and target predatory behaviour head-on, and ensuring that survivors get the unwavering support and justice that they deserve.

The Bill proves that this Labour Government are cleaning up the legacy of neglect left by the Conservatives. We are getting on with the task of building a military fit for the future, and with restoring absolute dignity to our armed forces, and I commend the Bill to the Committee.

Oral Answers to Questions

Johanna Baxter Excerpts

Monday 16th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I need to hear the next question. I will not be able to if there is chuntering across the Chamber.

[Johanna Baxter (Paisley and Renfrewshire South) (Lab)]

T7. Last week, the United Nations independent international commission of inquiry on Ukraine concluded that Russia has been committing crimes against humanity in the forcible deportation of Ukrainian children. Last night, the film “Mr Nobody Against Putin” won best documentary feature at the Oscars for exposing how Russia seeks to turn Ukrainian children into Russian soldiers. Will my right hon. Friend outline what further work he is undertaking with colleagues in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to ensure that children are not used as weapons of war?

[John Healey]

First, on behalf of the House may I congratulate my hon. Friend on receiving in Ukraine earlier this month the presidential Order of Merit for her work on this area? We are supporting a new tracing mechanism being used in Ukraine, and since September it has already identified an extra 600 children stolen by the Russians and forcibly held, and attempted indoctrination of the exact kind that my hon. Friend is campaigning against.

Ukraine and Wider Operational Update

Johanna Baxter Excerpts

Wednesday 7th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[John Healey]

Where there are grounds for us as a nation and a Government to take action, particularly where we can do so alongside close allies, we have done so. We have done so against individuals, organisations and vessels, and we have sanctioned 544 ships that are part of the Russian shadow fleet operation. Wherever there are grounds to do more, we will look at that, but I will not get into speculation on hypotheticals about future potential moves that we might make on economic sanctions.

[Johanna Baxter (Paisley and Renfrewshire South) (Lab)]

I welcome the Secretary of State’s statement and pay tribute to his leadership on this issue, as well as that of the Foreign Secretary and the Prime Minister. I also welcome the statement by the coalition of the willing on their commitments to deter further Russian aggression. Do those commitments extend to preventing the further forced deportation and militarisation of Ukrainian children, and if—as has been widely reported—we are 90% of the way towards a peace agreement, does that mean that Putin has agreed to hand back the more than 20,000 Ukrainian children he has stolen from that country?

[John Healey]

My hon. Friend speaks with great passion and emotion about this issue. I have had the privilege of visiting Ukraine a number of times, and one of the most moving things I have done on any of my visits happened when I was there jointly with the then shadow Foreign Secretary. We met some of those children who had been abducted and kidnapped by the Russians and then rescued and brought back to Ukraine. The impact on them and their families was deeply moving. My hon. Friend is totally right to say that this issue must be at the forefront of our minds, and it is, as I know it is for Ukraine. We must ensure that this practice is prevented and that all Ukrainian children who have been kidnapped by Russia are returned in the very earliest stages of any peace negotiations.

Ukraine

Johanna Baxter Excerpts

Thursday 18th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Luke Pollard]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for the passion with which he puts the argument. We are increasing defence spending; there is £5 billion extra in the defence budget this year. We will have more money in our budget every year for the next 10 years. There is not a single person who has served in uniform and seen a decade of rising defence spending ahead of them. We need to spend that well, but we also need to recognise that, with increasing threats, it is not just Defence that needs to spend money well; it is the whole of Government and the whole of society that need to step up. It is not just an MOD pursuit, although we take the lead in many cases.

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his thanks to the service personnel deployed around the world. For Members who have not seen it yet, the Royal Navy Christmas advert, which shows the real-life events of HMS Diamond when she was in the Red sea and what happens for our people at home and those deployed abroad, is well worth a watch.

[Johanna Baxter (Paisley and Renfrewshire South) (Lab)]

For some Ukrainian children, this will be the fourth Christmas that they will spend in Russia, after being torn from their families by the Russian state. Others will spend their Christmas living under occupation, and many more will spend their Christmas in a military training camp, being taught to fight against their own country. Will my hon. Friend set out what recent work he has been doing with colleagues in the FCDO to make sure that those children do not find themselves on the battlefield and that they spend their next Christmas in their own home, in their own country and with their own families?

[Luke Pollard]

Children should never be pawns of war. May I place on record my thanks to my hon. Friend for championing this issue? There is not a Ukraine debate that goes by without her raising the issue of Ukrainian children. It is absolutely vital, and it is why, as a country, we have said that a lasting and just peace in Ukraine must include the return of all the Ukrainian children stolen by Russia. We have committed more than £2.8 million to support Ukrainian efforts to facilitate the return and reintegration of children deported by Russia. We will continue to support that effort and to make the case that stealing children is not the sign of a strong nation. It is the sign of a weak nation, and it is not something that we will support or that any decent nation around the world should back.

Oral Answers to Questions

Johanna Baxter Excerpts

Monday 15th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Louise Sandher-Jones]

I thank the hon. Member for highlighting the important work that is being undertaken, and I will of course pay a visit in due course.

[Johanna Baxter (Paisley and Renfrewshire South) (Lab)]

One of the many challenges that Ukraine will face should a peace agreement be reached is the task of clearing land of mines and unexploded ordnance so that it can once again sustain Ukraine’s vital agricultural economy. How do the Government intend to invest in innovative de-mining technologies and work with Ukraine to ensure that its land is made safe and productive for the future?

[Al Carns]

The devastation caused by Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine is not lost on any of us. Millions of landmines—anti-tank mines—have been laid all across the frontline and will take decades to clear. We will work constructively with our Ukrainian and international allies to ensure that Ukraine is returned to normal as soon as peace is declared.

Ajax Armoured Vehicle

Johanna Baxter Excerpts

Monday 8th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Luke Pollard]

The right hon. Gentleman is inviting me to speculate on what could be a decision made after the report comes back. The Defence Secretary and I are clear about the fact that all options remain on the table. We are looking into the causes and what lessons can be learned on the basis of the three reviews that I mentioned earlier. I hope that those who work in the sector and may be sharing information with members of the media will also share their insights and experiences with the ministerial review, so that we can take their concerns on board and ensure that when a decision is made, once the reviews have reported, it is the right decision for our armed forces and, perhaps most important, for the safety of our service personnel.

[Johanna Baxter (Paisley and Renfrewshire South) (Lab)]

I thank the Minister for his response to the urgent question, and also for his unshakeable commitment to putting the safety of service personnel first. Can he tell us when the Ajax programme was last paused before this incident?

[Luke Pollard]

The programme was paused under the last Government when problems were identified in relation to noise and vibration, and I think it was right that they made that decision to pause it in order to understand what had happened. They then commissioned work to establish what had gone wrong and what mitigations were required, and it was on the basis of much of that work that I was given an assurance that the platform was safe. In view of the injuries sustained by our service personnel, we are looking at what has been provided to us, in terms of accuracy and timeliness but also to understand what has happened in relation to this incident. I shall be able to say more in due course, when the reviews report.

Ukraine

Johanna Baxter Excerpts

Monday 1st September 2025 Commons Chamber

[John Healey]

The purpose of the “coalition of the willing” force that we are leading the work to plan for is about actively securing the Ukrainian skies, actively making the Ukrainian seas safe, and providing a presence that will help to reassure, as well as helping to build up the Ukrainians to deter and defend for themselves. It starts from the first premise that in the circumstances of a peace agreement, for the medium and the long term, the strongest defence and the strongest deterrence is the nature and strength of the Ukraine armed forces themselves. That is our purpose, and that would be part of our mission.

[Johanna Baxter (Paisley and Renfrewshire South) (Lab)]

I thank my right hon. Friend and his whole team for the incredible efforts that they are making on this issue. Over the weekend, Russia launched yet more devastating airstrikes on Kyiv, killing 23 people including a two-year-old child. July was the deadliest month of the conflict since its early stages, with more than 280 civilians killed and more than 1,300 injured. Russia has once again shown its blatant disregard for human life, targeting, abducting, indoctrinating and even weaponising children. What further steps is the Secretary of State taking to ensure that Ukraine has the means to defend itself from these heinous crimes?

[John Healey]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for the campaigning that she is doing, and not just on Ukraine generally but, in particular, to draw attention to the systematic programme that we have seen from Putin and his troops in abducting Ukrainian children and trying to indoctrinate them into the Russian way of life. I have had discussions with Secretary Umerov, when he was Defence Minister and now when he is Secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council. He is leading the negotiations on behalf of President Zelensky, and some of the early discussions potentially with the Russian side are about prisoner of war swaps and about the return of those Ukrainian children.

Ukraine

Johanna Baxter Excerpts

Thursday 17th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[John Healey]

Madam Deputy Speaker, it was not my phone either.

The hon. Gentleman does an injustice to the more than 200 military planners, from more than 30 nations, who have worked over the last four months on the detail of the military planning. It has not just been an exercise based and led in France and the UK; it has involved detailed reconnaissance in Ukraine, led by UK personnel.

These are serious military plans. They are designed for the circumstances of a ceasefire—circumstances that are not entirely clear now, but that we hope to see. They will be refined regularly between now and any point of peace. They are designed to make sure that, when we get that peace, we are ready to support it as a multinational force for Ukraine.

[Johanna Baxter (Paisley and Renfrewshire South) (Lab)]

I thank my right hon. Friend for his update and for his leadership on this issue. In Russia and the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, Russian authorities have introduced military-patriotic training in schools and youth groups, exposing Ukrainian children to military propaganda urging enlistment in the Russian armed forces. There are also reports that Russia is recruiting Ukrainian teenagers and young adults to carry out espionage and sabotage within Ukraine.

Does my right hon. Friend agree that Ukraine’s children have no place on the battlefield in this war? Can he say a little more about the work he is doing with colleagues in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to hold to account those responsible for the militarisation and forced deportation of Ukraine’s children?

[John Healey]

I pay a huge tribute to my hon. Friend for her ceaseless work to draw public attention in the UK to the plight of abducted Ukrainian children and teenagers in Russia. Abducted Ukrainian children have no place on the Russian frontline, they have no place on the battlefield, and they have no place in Russia.

When the Foreign Secretary and I first went to Ukraine together, when we were still in opposition, we met a magnificent charity that was bringing abducted Ukrainian children back from Russia. We sat down with four young teenagers who had been subject to exactly the sort of treatment that my hon. Friend identifies. I will look to work with her and Foreign Office colleagues to reinforce any of the steps we can take in this country to draw greater attention to this brutal abuse of young people.

UK-France Nuclear Partnership

Johanna Baxter Excerpts

Thursday 10th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Maria Eagle]

Our respective national authorities will remain responsible for planning and conducting operations. A UK-France nuclear steering group will be established to provide political direction for increased co-ordination across nuclear policy capabilities and operations. That will be joint between the Élysée, which has authority over nuclear matters in France, and the Cabinet Office, which will co-ordinate with it—obviously with input from the Ministry of Defence.

[Johanna Baxter (Paisley and Renfrewshire South) (Lab)]

I welcome my right hon. Friend’s response and greater collaboration between the UK and France with this nuclear partnership. It not only enhances our nation’s security, but has the potential to deliver highly skilled and highly paid jobs to every nation and region across our country. Will she say a little more about how those benefits will be realised in Scotland?

[Maria Eagle]

My hon. Friend is correct. The strategic defence review and our ongoing commitment to increasing defence spending in this country give opportunity for our industry to benefit, obtain contracts and assist us in ensuring that we can defend our nation and NATO more fully and in a better way going forward. There will be jobs, skilled opportunities and growth in all parts of the nations and regions of the UK.

Strategic Defence Review

Johanna Baxter Excerpts

Monday 2nd June 2025 Commons Chamber

[John Healey]

The hon. Gentleman asks me about the attack subs: our investment is in production capacity, so that we can build at a faster rate and have a double production line in Barrow, which will allow us to build the number of new subs that we will need to deter future threats and meet our NATO commitments. I am glad that he welcomes that.

[Johanna Baxter (Paisley and Renfrewshire South) (Lab)]

I congratulate my right hon. Friend on his statement about this significant investment in the security of our nation. I was thrilled that the Prime Minister announced that there will be up to 12 new attack submarines, boosting growth in Scotland and keeping the UK safe for years to come. However, I was astonished to read over the weekend that the SNP Government in Holyrood are blocking investment in a specialist welding centre in Glasgow by withdrawing a £2.5 million grant. If the SNP continues to block funding for that centre, will the Secretary of State confirm that this Labour Government will step in?

[John Healey]

I was astonished to learn over the weekend that the SNP Government are withholding £2.5 million in support for Rolls-Royce to set up a specialist welding skills centre. The centre is essential not for munitions, as the SNP Government say, but for shipyards across the board, which act as a pipeline to bring wealth and jobs to Scotland. I can confirm to my hon. Friend that if the SNP will not change its view and will not step in to make the skills centre possible, then we will.