Strategic Defence Review 2025

Lord Bailey of Paddington Excerpts

Friday 18th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bailey of Paddington (Con)]

My Lords, I welcome the timely publication of the strategic defence review, and I agree with its analysis that the UK faces generational defence and security challenges, whether from Russia, Iran, China, North Korea or non-state bad actors, criminal gangs and terrorist organisations.

The strategic defence review rightly recognises that we need to engage our wider society to deal with the threats and keep our country safe. However, it is alarming that recent polling by Ipsos conducted ahead of the review revealed that almost half of Britons say there are no circumstances in which they would be willing to take up arms to defend the country. There is one silver lining, though, in that seven in 10 Britons— including many young people—still believe that the Armed Forces can provide a good career path for the next generation. How are we going to change the way the country, its history and its Armed Forces are spoken about to make people feel that this country is a place worth defending?

As some noble Lords may know, I am a proud honorary colonel cadet of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, so supporting and promoting the cadet movement means a great deal to me. I recognise the positive impact that the cadets and the courses they study and undertake have on our society. I therefore take this opportunity to congratulate the Army cadets and Royal Air Force cadets who graduated recently from the Cadets in Enterprise programme at the London Stock Exchange.

It is particularly welcome that the strategic defence review has concluded that reconnecting defence with wider society should be the cornerstone of our home defence and resilience strategy. It could

“be achieved in part through expanding Cadet Forces by 30% by 2030 (with an ambition to reach 250,000 in the longer term) and working with the Department for Education to develop understanding of the Armed Forces among young people in schools”.

Expanding the cadet force will

“provide skills and qualifications to young people, inform and inspire future Defence personnel—from diverse backgrounds across the country—and support economic growth”.

Ministers should heed the comments of Mr Michael Martins from the British Foreign Policy Group, who stressed the need for our defence strategy to engage the rest of society, arguing:

“Without a compelling narrative—one that builds cross-party and public consensus, while also bringing business along—the SDR risks being viewed as a technocratic exercise, not a national priority”.


I hope that the Government’s whole-of-society approach in response to the review bears fruit and they deliver on the number of cadets needed. I will be willing to work with them in any way to help them achieve this number, and to hold them to account should they fall short.

While the publication of the review is a step in the right direction, I share Mr Martins’s concerns and believe that the Government will need to do more than merely meet the review’s recommendations. Rather, they will need to exceed them and should promote civic engagement and pride in our Armed Forces and indeed our country. Many young people do not feel they can be involved in supporting this country and its defence because of the way in which this country is spoken about by many people, particularly our history. If you talk to people from my community in general, they will tell you many things about institutional racism et cetera that have been forced down their throats and make them feel separate from this nation that has clothed and housed them and keeps them safe every day. I would like the Minister to explain how we turn around that part of our public discourse to make people feel like they should and can be involved in the safety of this nation.

Should this civic engagement and pride in our Armed Forces become something that the public can hold to their chest and appreciate, it will help us keep our nation and communities safer and provide an opportunity for young people to be exposed to the people who man our Armed Forces. They are some of the most dedicated, intelligent and committed people in the world; it would be an awful shame not to let our young people be exposed to that level of patriotic fervour and the pure, technical care that they have for this country. It would be very useful to expose all communities to that.