Ukraine

Lord Soames of Fletching Excerpts

Thursday 9th February 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Soames of Fletching (Con) (Maiden Speech)]

My Lords, I thank the right reverend Prelate for his very kind words. It is difficult for me to adequately express the great sense of honour that I feel in rising to make my maiden speech in your Lordships’ House.

I start by thanking your Lordships for the generosity of the welcome that I have received, including some very kind words today, and expressing my particular thanks to Black Rod and her staff, Garter, the Clerk of the Parliaments, the IT wizards, the doorkeepers and attendants and, of course, the police, for their kindness and patience in steering me about the place. My thanks also go to my noble friends Lord Maude and Lord Benyon for generously agreeing to present me to this House; to the Government Chief Whip and her excellent office; and to my noble friend Lord Young of Cookham than whom there could be no better, no more sympathetic and no more knowledgeable mentor.

My first impressions, after a very few weeks here and as a former Member for 35 years of the House of Commons, are that your Lordships’ House is a highly successful but unsung institution, quietly and effectively getting on with vital, detailed, irreplaceable work of scrutiny, complementing but not rivalling the House of Commons. This week alone it has been a great privilege to listen to the ebb and flow of passionate, well-informed argument by some of the most distinguished and eminent Members of your Lordships’ House on two Bills of absolute profound importance to this country: on Monday, the debate on retained EU law and, on Tuesday, on matters touching on the fundamental liberties of the people of this country in the Public Order Bill. It has become clear to me very quickly that your Lordships’ House has a membership of often extraordinary wisdom, expertise, knowledge and experience, and I feel deeply privileged and very humbled to be part of it.

There could hardly be a better day for this House to take stock of the situation in Ukraine after the extraordinarily powerful and symbolic visit to London by President Zelensky and his inspirational speech to both Houses of Parliament. His leadership of Ukraine, as Moscow has sought to collapse his country as an independent and democratic state, has been heroic and exemplary and was brilliantly and movingly expressed yesterday.

I think it fitting to pay tribute to former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who immediately grasped the significance of President Putin unleashing a war on our European continent without any provocation or credible excuse. He rightly said that this country and its allies could not and indeed would not allow the values of democracy and freedom to be snuffed out, and made clear the United Kingdom’s policy. He said:

“Now we have a clear mission: diplomatically, politically, economically and eventually militarily, this hideous and barbaric venture of Vladimir Putin must end in failure.”—[Official Report, Commons, 24/2/2022; col 564.]


I also congratulate my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Defence, whose drive and leadership in the equipping and training of the Ukrainian armed forces has been admirable. I pay tribute to the tremendous skills of those members of the British Armed Forces, of all three services, who have been and are training our Ukrainian friends. As a former Minister of State for the Armed Forces, I have always been very aware of how exceptionally skilled the services are in their delivering of these training programmes. They are probably the finest training organisation in the country.

As we witness the unfolding reality and costs, in both men and materiel, of high-intensity conventional land warfare in Ukraine, it has added to the grave and now widespread concern that this country needs to pay a great deal more attention to defence and to sustaining our capabilities. Frankly, it is no longer possible, in my view, for defence to be reduced to an almost discretionary budget. I strongly believe that we need to reverse the slide in defence spending and to recognise that unless we invest at scale, we risk being left behind—very left behind—by the United States and, indeed, outgunned by other European states.

We all know that there are grave dangers ahead—the war in Ukraine is not the only challenge we will face. There are the global ambitions of China, including as a military power; serious difficulties in the Middle East; and instability in Africa and elsewhere. Further, I strongly believe that we need to pay the most careful and detailed attention to shoring up other areas, such as the Balkans, where Russia exhibits daily its malign intent. We need to concentrate on this with the same clarity, focus and decisiveness as we devote to Ukraine. We should most definitely not underestimate the danger of the fracturing of western resolve. We must ensure that there are no doubts about our staying power, our determination, our resolve and our unity. Your Lordships will be very aware that the President of China will be watching with great interest and care as he makes his calculations about Taiwan.

Finally, I support a sentiment expressed by the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Stirrup, who I was with yesterday on a very helpful Zoom call briefing with the Ministry of Defence, and expressed in an earlier speech by the noble Lord, Lord Robertson, and yesterday by my noble friend Lady Helic: that we need urgently to address the lack of understanding—other noble Lords have also mentioned this—of Ukraine’s position in Africa, South America, the Middle East and India, where Russian propaganda seems to have been, in some places, dangerously effective. This should, in my judgment, be a priority for the Foreign Office.

Our country can and should be proud of the role we have played in supporting Ukraine, and we must continue to be absolutely steadfast in our support in every way we can. It is worth remembering that Ukraine is one of history’s great survivors: two world wars, Stalin’s famines, the Great Terror, the Chernobyl explosion and finally a decade of subversion and occupation by Russia, followed by a full-blown invasion. The terrible lessons of history teach us that Ukraine is surely in need of all the help we can muster. I look forward to playing a further part in these debates and to continuing to learn, as I have done in the past few weeks, from your Lordships across the House.