Armed Forces Bill

Lord Magan of Castletown Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 6th July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Magan of Castletown (Con)]

My Lords, it is somewhat daunting to follow my noble friend Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton. He certainly knows what he is talking about.

We have to talk about money. It is the critical lifeblood of our Armed Forces and their effectiveness. This Labour Administration are totally failing to recognise fully their financial responsibilities for the defence of the realm. We are on a collision course with a Russia that is on a war footing. The threats are not imaginary; they are real. Yet the current Labour Administration are intent on sleepwalking into a critical situation for want of mobilising the immediately necessary and substantial funding to keep our country safe.

Yes, the UK is extremely vulnerable and exposed at this time, not least because of the very substantial underinvestment in our nuclear submarine capability. The strategic defence review made abundantly clear the scale of the increased investment in defence capabilities that is needed. The defence investment plan has quantified the requirement at £28 billion over the next four years. The reality is that the current Labour Administration have prevaricated and procrastinated until very late, coming up with a—very rushed—financial commitment of just £15 billion over four years, but substantially sourced by as yet unidentified cost savings. This is just far too little and far too late.

Defence expenditure will rise in 2030 to just 2.7% of GDP, far short of the 3% committed by the Prime Minister to our NATO allies. No wonder that John Healey, until recently Secretary of State for Defence, resigned—because, in his words, the proposed level of spending

“falls well short of what is required for defence and the country at this dangerous time”.

So Prime Minister Starmer goes to the NATO summit this week as a derided lame duck—an ignominious ending to his disastrous term in office. His weakness will hugely upset our European NATO partners but will enrage President Trump, whose ire will no doubt manifest itself in other ways of significant damage to the UK and our trading relationship with the USA. Starmer has surely smashed the special relationship; it will take a very long time for trust and confidence to rebuild.