Strategic Defence Review 2025

Lord Anderson of Swansea Excerpts

Friday 18th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Anderson of Swansea (Lab)]

My Lords, to my noble friend Lord McCabe, I say, “Many congratulations”, and to the noble Lord, Lord Hennessy, “Welcome home”. I am reminded that my noble friend Lord Robertson has form in that, uniquely, this is his second SDR, the first being in 1998. Much has changed since 1998. Then, there was less emphasis on homeland security and a whole-of-society approach. There was a very different—almost benign—view of Russia. After all, we had the NATO-Russia Founding Act, and Russian so-called parliamentarians were part of the NATO parliamentary assembly. Now, following Putin’s Munich speech, we have the more aggressive Russia threatening us with cyberattacks and attacks on underwater cables—and, of course, most aggressive of all has been the illegal invasion of Ukraine. Brexit has occurred since, and now we can look less at NATO and the US, and more at Europe and NATO. I will say in a moment how much I welcome the two recent bilateral visits by the German and French leaders.

There have been a vast number of other changes. China is more salient, certainly, and the nature of warfare has changed, as we have seen in Ukraine. In 1998, there was no mention of drones: now, 70% of the damage in Ukraine is caused by drones. AI has also altered the conception of warfare and the relevant weaponry. So the question is: since 1998, with all these changes, has the new SDR adequately risen to the task? I think the almost universal answer from commentators is, “Yes”.

I have two questions, on recruitment and alliances. On recruitment, there is what the Secretary of State for Defence describes in his introduction as a “recruitment crisis”. This has already been dealt with by some, including the noble Lord, Lord Harlech, who referred to the Reserve Forces. We have to recognise from the start that a military career is almost against the spirit of the age, in particular for the younger generation whom we need to attract into the military. A number of suggestions are made in the SDR, including making a military career more attractive to families, and looking at housing, education and qualifications that are portable and can be taken into civilian life. We need to relate more, as they say, to links with civilians and the industrial sector. There is a vast range of suggestions about how to recruit more. In the last similar debate, one Member of your Lordships’ House mentioned relying more on the Gurkhas, who now constitute 8% of our Army. Clearly, there has to be a point about the reserves, and a greater role for civilian staff in administration, to release men and women more for the front line.

My second point is about alliances. The Falklands War in 1982 was the last war which we carried out on our own. In future, it will be all about alliances. NATO has changed and we have to rely less on the US and more on our European forces—less US, more EU. During the last two very important visits, President Macron talked about a new nuclear alliance with us and Chancellor Merz talked about more industrial relationships, including exports. However, have the MoD thought about a more triangular relationship between the French, the Germans and ourselves? Perhaps missing from the SDR and recent utterances has been the question of the parliamentary dimension, which is important.

This is a very valuable SDR that takes into account the changes since the last one from the noble Lord, Lord Robertson. The question now is implementation, and we say with a loud voice, “Over to the Government—over to you”.