Unity Contract

Debate between Kevin Bonavia and Maria Eagle

Friday 24th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Maria Eagle]

I welcome the hon. Lady’s support for the deal and for our continuous at-sea deterrent; that has not always been the Liberal Democrats’ position, so I welcome the fact that consensus has increased in this House.

The point that the hon. Lady made about enabling SMEs to get involved in the defence supply chain is tremendously important. We are currently consulting on the defence industrial strategy, and I am particularly keen to ensure we take steps to make that better, because the potential for innovation, agility and pull-through of new technologies is tremendous. I invite her to contribute to the consultation and to watch out for the defence industrial strategy when it is published.

[Kevin Bonavia (Stevenage) (Lab)]

I very much welcome this statement. As the hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell (Helen Maguire) said, we need SMEs to support our defence sector. One of the key challenges facing our defence sector, as Ukraine has shown, is that we need to speed up the pace of innovation in this new era facing defence. In Stevenage, we have many excellent SMEs supporting our local defence primes, Airbus and MBDA. Will my right hon. Friend show her support for what SMEs are doing and support them in the future?

[Maria Eagle]

I completely agree with my hon. Friend’s point, which is that SMEs form a central part of our industrial base and can do more, if we encourage and enable them to do so, to boost our defence, boost jobs and boost economic growth in all regions and nations. I invite him to get involved in our defence industrial strategy consultation, which is ongoing.