Julian Lewis
Main Page: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)Department Debates - View all Julian Lewis's debates with the Cabinet Office
(1 day, 14 hours ago)
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The Prime Minister
The risk to our country is if we do not fight for the peace. My position on the sustained deployment of our troops is that this House would of course want to discuss that and vote on that, but we are nowhere near that stage at the moment.
Sir Julian Lewis (New Forest East) (Con)
The Prime Minister’s very capable Defence ministerial team will have told him that even were he able to accelerate investment and expenditure on defence more rapidly than has already been outlined, there would be a considerable time lag, given the complexity of modern equipment, before industrial output could be ramped up. He talks about intensifying planning. Will he include the creation of a defence industrial expansion unit in the machinery that is being set up now? That way, as resources become available, the output of military equipment can be at the fastest possible rate.
The Prime Minister
I thank the right hon. Member for his question. We already have a unit working on rapid deployment and procurement in relation to Ukraine, which, along with other aspects, need to be ramped up.