Defence and Security

Monica Harding Excerpts

Tuesday 25th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I do agree with that, and I agree with my hon. Friend’s comments about the supply chains, which are vital to the security effort.

[Monica Harding (Esher and Walton) (LD)]

The former United States Defence Secretary Jim Mattis once said:

“If you don’t fund the State Department fully, then I need to buy more ammunition ultimately.”

Can the Prime Minister not see that funding this uplift through official development assistance is short-sighted and a strategic and moral mistake, because prevention is cheaper than wars, because this gives more leverage to Russia and China, and because we do it on the backs of the world’s poorest? In fact, it is something that I never thought I would see a Labour Government do, and a pitiful inheritance from 1997. Given that it is a policy choice and not a retrospective fiscal one, and given that it is in direct contravention of the law passed here in 2015, which rules out the link between levels of defence and development funding, will this Labour Government be repealing that law?

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Lady is right to say that prevention is better than war—that is why it is important that we prepare our defence to be able to secure and maintain the peace, and that is precisely why I made my statement today—but she is wrong about the law, and we are not going to repeal it.