Oral Answers to Questions

Jonathan Davies Excerpts

Wednesday 4th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The right hon. Member will have heard me set out what we did by way of pre-deployment, working in conjunction with and liaising with the US. So he understands the context in which those pre-deployments were put in place, and I think they speak for themselves as to why they were put in those places.

In relation to defence spend, obviously we are increasing it to 2.6% of GDP—that is £270 billion over the Parliament—but as I said in the speech I gave in Munich just a couple of weeks ago, we are going to have to spend more and faster after the years of under-investment and troop cuts that—[Interruption.] The Conservatives were the ones who hollowed this out. They were the ones who reduced the size of the Army. They were the ones who did not spend what was necessary on defence. Like everything else they left in such a mess, we are clearing it up, and through our strategic defence review we will make Britain safer.

[Jonathan Davies (Mid Derbyshire) (Lab)]

Q6. Like the Prime Minister, I had the transformative benefit of a music education as a young person, although he had his some while before I had mine. [Hon. Members: “Ooh!”] After more than a decade of decline in music in schools, the Government’s new national centre for arts and music education and measures coming through the curriculum review will ensure that more young people benefit from the opportunities that my right hon. and learned Friend and I both had. Can he tell us how the new national centre will make a difference for our young people, and what are the Government doing to address the funding shortfalls currently facing England’s music education hubs, including mine in Derbyshire?

[Mr Speaker]

He obviously loves the Back Benches, Prime Minister.