Military Covenant
Nigel Evans Excerpts(11 years, 6 months ago)
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Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
Order. The wind-ups are going to start at 6.40 pm. Three Members remain to speak, so if they take just under four minutes each everybody will get in. If they take interventions, I really should ignore any injury time.
Penny Mordaunt
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I was going to make five brief points to the Minister about what he should be focusing on as he develops the covenant, and the role of Service Complaints Commissioner was top of the list. It is a unique position. The person has tremendous knowledge and expertise, yet they were not involved in developing the armed forces covenant and they are not involved in the writing of the annual report. It would be tremendously helpful if the Minister could rectify that.
Secondly, I was going to mention the integration between civilian services and services in the armed forces, where health care tops the list of areas that need to be examined. Thirdly, the covenant is really a call to arms. It is a call for good ideas to be brought forward and acted on, so will the Minister ensure that he has enough resources and capacity to be able to examine them and implement them? Fourthly, a lot of money is being put into all kinds of organisations that provide services and support to our armed forces, in part because of the kind of operations we are undertaking at the moment. That might not be the case in the future, so I urge all Departments to take a long-term view of how they plan to upkeep those rehabilitation services when there is less money coming in.
Finally, I ask the Minister to examine the low-level issues as well as the headlines. We have had wonderful, long overdue announcements under the covenant in areas such as education and in vitro fertilisation, but we need to address the downright boring stuff that will make a great difference to men and women in our armed forces, for example, getting their joint personnel administration accounts to work and getting the shower fixed when they are overseas. I urge him to examine those issues and not let up on reforms in that area. I also just wish to say that I am delighted that he is at the helm, and I think that great things can be done under this initiative.
Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to say a few words, Mr Deputy Speaker. First, I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Lagan Valley (Mr Donaldson) on bringing this matter to the House and on setting the scene clearly for us all. I am proud to stand here today beside my fellow British men and British women to say a big thank you to all those who put their lives, their mental health and their physical health at risk every day.
My constituency was devastated recently by the news of the loss of young Channing Day in Afghanistan. She was a courageous and heroic young lady who gave much. My right hon. Friend and I were both at a dinner in London when we heard the news filtering through that night, and it came as a shock to everyone there. I was shocked to the very pit of my stomach. Many of us were shocked to learn that someone who came from a place not 10 minutes away from my office would never be home in physical body again. The community of Comber turned out in great numbers at the Royal British Legion service on the Saturday before the service that the Minister of State attended in Comber church, and it was a very poignant occasion. All the RBL remembrance services in my area served as a particular reminder, because not too far away was a young lady who gave her life. The Army quickly stepped in to provide the assistance necessary to help the family—to bring them over to receive Channing’s remains when they came home and to come to Comber. The funeral was an occasion of some poignancy and tears for all of us. Those are things that we remember.
Let me make a couple of very quick points. About a month ago, we had a coffee morning in my office for SSAFA—the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association—which raised some £3,600. We have raised £14,000 over four years. That is only a drop in the ocean when it comes to what is necessary, but it underlines the fact that a great number of charities, including SSAFA, ABF and the Royal British Legion, are all doing their best to ensure that the opportunities are open to everyone when it comes to ensuring that people have the chance to receive the help that they need.
I am very privileged to come from an area where people join the armed forces—it is not just an exception, but an everyday part of my life. In my office alone, my secretary’s nephew and my researcher’s friend and husband are serving Queen and country. That is three people out of my office and shows the service from the area. I am proud to stand in the Chamber on behalf of the people of my constituency of Strangford and the service they give across the whole world. It is true to say that wherever a person goes in the world, they will find a soldier from Northern Ireland either fighting a battle or cleaning up afterwards. Wherever I have been in the world with the armed forces parliamentary scheme, I have met soldiers from my constituency who are doing just that—giving a great service across the world.
I have also been an avid supporter of the British Legion’s “Honour the Covenant” campaign, which we should all support. I believe that there have been many changes in how the MOD and the Government treat our returning soldiers. As many Members have said, we need to consider their mental health, but there is also a physical aspect to the question. With growing numbers of injured personnel coming home from Afghanistan, there is an immediate need for a dedicated strategy on care for them and their families. They need to know what they are coming home to and we should be providing that strategy.
Finally, whenever I meet servicemen, they say to me that they will give all they have if we will take care of those they love back home. We have a responsibility to the families, too, and we should and must act on that. I think of this comment: they offer their tomorrows so that we can have our today. Let us honour that and honour the covenant, and let us enshrine it from these green Benches so that it covers each and every corner of the United Kingdom.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
I call Mr Weir, who should finish no later than 6.40 pm.
Army 2020
Nigel Evans Excerpts(11 years, 10 months ago)
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Mr Dai Havard (Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney) (Lab)
The memorial service for one of my constituents, Lance Corporal Richard Scanlon, which will take place on 21 July, will be easier now that we are not getting rid of the Queen’s Dragoon Guards. I wrote to the Secretary of State about the criterion that was being used. Today’s statement is effectively a work in progress, which is understandable. There is now some limited information in the attached written statement about how the employment model might be taken forward and the discussions about the reserves. However, the argument about saving the Welsh Cavalry was not an argument simply about the Welsh Cavalry; it was an argument about how things looked across the whole of the United Kingdom. This is a United Kingdom issue, but it is also a Navy and an Air Force issue, and at some point I would like to know how the Secretary of State plans to show us how integration will work not only across the Army, but across—
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
Order. Please resume your seat. Questions must be brief. Hon. Members can see how many—[Interruption.] Order. Hon. Members can see how many of them wish to be called on the statement. I cannot allow it to go until the very end, because we are time limited and there is other business to come. Mr Havard, will you please ask a question?
Jim McGovern (Dundee West) (Lab)
I am delighted to hear that the name of the Black Watch will be retained. I offer my gratitude to the 3,000 people in Dundee who signed the petition in support of the Black Watch. At the risk of being accused of nepotism, I must also mention my mother, Alice McGovern, who collected more than 1,000 of those signatures. In fact, she was ejected from a local shopping centre for collecting signatures for the petition. People have—
Jim McGovern
Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker.
People have talked about what happened on the previous Government’s watch and about what is happening on this Government’s watch. I would like to ask the Minister whether, on his watch, there will always be a Black Watch.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
Order. Questions need to be very brief with no preambles.
Anna Soubry (Broxtowe) (Con)
Will the Secretary of State be so good as to come to the reservist centre at the Chetwynd barracks and meet senior officers who told me on Sunday that they believe we need legislation if we are to deliver the number of reservists we clearly need?
Mr Hammond
I welcome the strong link between Wales and the British armed forces, and I am sure that those who have campaigned on the Queen’s Dragoon Guards will be greatly relieved.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
I would like to thank hon. Members and the Secretary of State. In the end, everyone who wanted to contribute was able to do so.
Defence Reform
Nigel Evans Excerpts(11 years, 10 months ago)
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Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
Order. Before the shadow Minister takes that intervention, may I just point out that this is a time-limited debate and he has been incredibly generous in the interventions he has taken? That is not, however, to stop the intervention he is about to take.
Anas Sarwar
I come back to that important point about the separation of Scotland from the rest of the United Kingdom. Is my hon. Friend aware of comments made by Alex Salmond, Scotland’s First Minister, earlier this year? He called the MOD plans exactly the sort of “configuration you’d want”.
Strategic Defence and Security Review
Nigel Evans Excerpts(12 years, 3 months ago)
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Dr Murrison
I thank the Minister. Recent activity in the south Atlantic has shown us that the threat from a Government playing to a national gallery has to be addressed.
Lyn Brown (West Ham) (Lab)
On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. I have informed the office of the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) that I intend to raise this point of order. This morning at business questions, the hon. Gentleman told the House that Ken Livingstone intends to overturn the ban on drinking alcohol on public transport in London. That is simply untrue; Ken Livingstone will not overturn the ban on drinking alcohol on public transport. I wonder, Mr Deputy Speaker, whether you have had any indication whatsoever that the hon. Member for Harrow East intends to come to the Chamber to correct the record.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
I thank the hon. Lady for notice of her point of order, and for contacting the Member’s office. Right hon. and hon. Members are responsible for their own comments but should make every effort to ensure that they are accurate, and I am absolutely certain that the attentive Whip on the Treasury Bench will bring the point of order to the Member’s attention.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
Order. I am reducing the time limit on speeches to seven minutes.
Mr Tobias Ellwood (Bournemouth East) (Con)
I am grateful to catch your eye, Mr Deputy Speaker. Like others, I declare my interest as a member of the Territorial Army. There seem to be enough of us here to form a small platoon, which would perhaps be interesting, although such a platoon would come only from this side of the Chamber. Indeed, there is a noticeable absence of support for today’s debate from the Opposition Benches—[Interruption]—other than from the right hon. Member for Rotherham (Mr MacShane), who has just walked into the Chamber.
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth North (Penny Mordaunt), as well as my hon. Friend the Member for Penrith and The Border (Rory Stewart), who, with his eloquent speech, raised the standard of this debate—we were getting into the weeds a little bit, talking about the tactics of the SDSR rather than the strategy. We were starting to talk about the individual bits of kit that we enjoy, like or are in love with—we are always quick to quote a retired general or admiral saying, “This is exactly what we need”—rather than stepping back and asking what the strategy is and where we fit in the bigger picture. Fundamentally, the SDSR is about how we protect our people, our allies, our economy and our infrastructure—indeed, our way of life—from the potential risks that we face. It is about how, on occasions working with our allies, we apply the instruments of power to influence and shape the global environment, and how potential tactical threats affect us.
The shadow Secretary of State did not want to get partisan when I intervened on him, but it is important to reflect on what happened over the last decade. Not only did the previous Government not have an SDSR, which was bad time management, but not having one affected our military’s ability to perform. During that decade we saw the September 11 attacks, we were involved in enormous campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, and we had the July 2005 bombings. The type of threat changed, compared with the cold war stance that we were used to. There were huge changes in operational tactics too, with the introduction of drone warfare, advances in missile systems and stealth technology—ways to introduce force multipliers that did not exist before. The conduct of war also changed, with an emphasis on stabilisation operations as much as war fighting, as illustrated in Iraq and Afghanistan. The kinetic phases of those campaigns were over very quickly, but the lack of an unconditional surrender meant that we then got into protracted stabilisation and peacekeeping operations.
I was saddened to visit Sandhurst not long ago and find that it had only just introduced courses in CIMIC—civil-military co-operation—which are required to enable the military to liaise and work with civilian counterparts, NGOs and the Department for International Development in those other operations, which start in the aftermath of the war fighting. That is what we now need to get good at; that is what was missing in Afghanistan and Iraq. Had the Labour Government held a defence review, those issues would have been identified. However, they did not, and we failed to take the opportunity to fundamentally modernise our armed forces. I think the Chilcot inquiry will reflect that. It will show that our armed forces found themselves in two campaigns with the wrong numbers and the wrong equipment, and without a clear strategy.
I firmly agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Penrith and The Border about our ability to work more cohesively with other Departments. We need to be able to work with DFID and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to ensure that our strategy—the purpose of sending our military into danger—is absolutely crystal clear. It is clear from General Petraeus’s book on counter-insurgency that it is not enough simply to defeat the enemy; we now have to win over the hearts and minds of the locals—the friends that we are trying to support.
The triangle consisting of security at the top, then governance, followed by development and reconstruction has still not been developed. In Afghanistan, the security aspects took far too long to get right. Huge questions still arise as to why we ended up in Helmand province anyway. Those of us who know the history of that country will be aware of the treaty of Gandamak and the battle of Kandahar. Events such as those tell us that we are not particularly welcome in that patch of Afghanistan, given the history there. There might have been other places in which we could have been more strategically helpful. Lessons have been learned from those engagements and put into practice in Libya, where there has been a far more coherent effort, not only within our own Departments but in regard to whom we work with, including our NATO allies.
Labour missed a massive opportunity to understand what exactly our military are expected to do. Our armed forces were placed in danger and given kit that was out of date. I mentioned Snatch Land Rovers in an intervention. Too often at that time, other bits of kit were thrown at the military for testing, to see whether they would work. They included vehicles such as the Jackal, the Cougar, the Vector and the Ridgback. Eventually, the Mastiff came along and proved to be the most suitable for use in those operations. Things should not have had to work in that way, however. A security strategy could have helped in that context.
Procurement errors have been made. The Nimrod has been mentioned many times in the debate. The contract for its development was signed in 1996, and it was due for delivery in 2003, yet not one aircraft ever received a certificate of airworthiness. The Sea Harriers have been cut, which means that there is now no chance of us ever putting a carrier in. The existing Harriers do not have guns; they do not have the Mauser weapon systems. They cannot carry the Brimstone or the Storm Shadow, yet those missiles were critical to the success of the action in Libya.
We get stuck with certain favourite bits of kit. The Apache is now in a new dimension. It travels at two thirds the speed of the Harrier and fires the Hellfire missile, which is just as potent as any of our other weapons. We hear that the Falklands are under threat. We have an aircraft carrier there, so the base already exists, and it has the Typhoon and the Tornado. The Argentines spend only £3 billion on their defence budget, compared with our £30 billion. I believe that we should place the question of Argentina in a separate context in relation to the SDSR. It is a distraction from where we are going.
Finally, I should like to congratulate the Defence team on what it is doing. I think that we are finally progressing—
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
Order. I remind Members that the wind-up by James Arbuthnot will start no later than five to 6.
BAE Systems
Nigel Evans Excerpts(12 years, 5 months ago)
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Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
Order. I inform the House that the debate will conclude at 2.30 pm.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
Order. I am going to call the Front Benchers next, but I ask them to be mindful that a number of MPs who wish to contribute to this debate have constituency interests in the matter.
Alison Seabeck
Forgive me, but I will not, because a lot of Back-Bench Members want to speak. The Minister gave way a lot, and we need to move on.
A key part of the very significant contribution that the defence industries, and indeed BAE, make to our economy is the need for a strong defence industrial strategy —one that meets our overall defence needs and protects our sovereign capability. We need a coherent plan of investment—for example, in unmanned aerial vehicle technologies—that will help to sustain the whole-aircraft skills on which this industry has traditionally been based. Labour Members have already commissioned our own review of defence procurement, and it will be interesting to see whether, in the long promised White Paper, the Government pick up on any of the themes we have suggested, which deserve further consideration. Crucial too, and touched on in our document, is the economic case for a strong defence sector able to export goods and grow its markets rather than, as we are seeing now, having to scale back its work, shrink its work force and leave the taxpayer covering the cost of unemployment.
The relationship that BAE Systems has with the UK Government, and therefore within the defence industrial base, is significant because of its substantial reach. It is a company of global significance with some 38,000 employees in the UK, one of the largest cohorts of apprentices, 10%-plus of all defence industrial jobs, and over a third of its sales market in this country. In fairness to the company, it does understand the need to protect the skills base. BAE also has some 9,000 UK suppliers, with tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of supply chain jobs therefore partly dependent on it.
We are working in a market environment in difficult financial times, and it is therefore important to understand from the Government what discussions they had with BAE prior to this announcement. The Minister touched on that. Was the prospect of offsetting potential job losses from the slowing of programmes at BAE against the mooted development by Siemens in Hull ever discussed? Siemens, of course, was in line to pick up the work that Bombardier failed to get. There is some uncertainty all around this. We should be a little clearer about which branches of Government are looking to ensure that there is sustained, ongoing skilled employment in the Humber area.
We have to have concerns when organisations such as ADS, the trade organisation advancing the UK aerospace, defence, security and space sectors, express the view that the current cuts to BAE are the tip of the iceberg. We need to be convinced that the Government are using all their tools—I realise that that is not solely the responsibility of the Minister who is present—to help those successful industries to be more productive. When the Government are the client, they must still ensure that the taxpayer gets value for money. The Government must decide whether they want to act to support sovereign capability with skilled jobs based in this country. If they do, they need to act now.
We have to look at the potential problems facing the Typhoon programme. Italy and Spain are having difficulty paying their way. I heard the Minister’s positive comments about the Typhoon programme, but we need reassurance that the Government are doing everything they can to keep it on track. We need to be sure that, along with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Department is looking at the impact of the loss of intellectual property rights, such as those associated with the Harrier and the Hawk, which were mentioned by the right hon. Member for Haltemprice and Howden. Those are transferable, and in theory that allows build programmes to happen outside the UK. Will Hawk production be shifted entirely to India? Is that an entirely desirable endgame for the British Government? I suggest that it is not.
I hope that the Minister will listen, as I shall, to right hon. and hon. Members in this important Back-Bench debate as they flag up what is wrong with the way BAE is responding to the current downturn, and highlight the ways in which the Government are not supporting British industry in this sector as Members feel they should. The Minister should not only take a direct interest in the current situation, as he has made clear that he does, but pay heed to the critical reports of the Public Accounts Committee and the National Audit Office, including any future investigations that they might undertake as a direct result of today’s debate, particularly into the yellow book. In the forthcoming White Paper, the Government should indicate clearly a positive way forward, because BAE, irrespective of the issues raised in the House today, is a significant player in the Government’s defence strategy and wider industrial strategy, particularly for fixed-wing aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles, so it needs to be able to plan with some certainty within its own domestic market, as do all its competitors. In turn, it will be able to secure high-skilled jobs such as those at Brough into the future. We must avoid further job losses, any further loss of expertise and, of course, the poor use of taxpayers’ money.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
The time limit has been reduced to five minutes in order to get everybody in.
Andrew Percy (Brigg and Goole) (Con)
It is a pleasure to follow my near neighbour and fellow east Yorkshire MP, the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull East (Karl Turner). I also pay tribute to my right hon. Friend the Member for Haltemprice and Howden (Mr Davis) and the right hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle (Alan Johnson) for securing this important debate.
I cannot add much to the arguments about Brough so I shall talk about the impact on the local economy. First, though, I shall respond to one or two of the points made by other Members, starting with my hon. Friend the Member for Wyre and Preston North (Mr Wallace). It is a little unfair to suggest that we think that everything should be bought here in the United Kingdom or that there is some sort of magic bullet. We recognise the requirement for partnership, to which my right hon. Friend the Member for Haltemprice and Howden referred. We are asking, “Are we getting what we can out of these contracts, or is the country too subservient in this sector?”
I am delighted that the debate has not turned party political or into a Lancashire versus Yorkshire argument, which is important to me as a Percy: the Percys fought on the Lancastrian side despite being a Yorkshire family. [Interruption.] Actually, we changed sides halfway through because we like to be on the winning side.
Andrew Percy
The point is that this has not been a political debate.
I want to discuss the impact on east Yorkshire and my constituents in north Lincolnshire, a number of whom work at BAE Systems. It was brought home to me on the day of the announcement when my secretary, whose husband works at BAE, contacted me distraught about what was happening. Practically everyone who lives in east Yorkshire knows somebody who works at, or is connected to, the factory. As my colleague and near neighbour, the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull East will attest—we were two boys at Hull comprehensives—when we went to school in the ’80s and ’90s if someone wanted an apprenticeship, they got one either at BAE Systems or at Saltend with BP. The vast majority of my compatriots and friends at school did not go to university but, like their parents, worked—and continue to work—at BAE Systems.
As Members have said on both sides, the company is rooted in east Yorkshire, and the impact of its leaving will be indescribable not just on the work force but because of the work it does in local schools and through pairing with universities and colleges. As the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull North (Diana Johnson) said, the Humber economy is in a pretty poor state, and has been for a long time. Over the past 10 years, we have lost private sector jobs along the Humber at a time when the rest of the country was growing private sector jobs. We are in a bad state, and the consequences of losing these 800 jobs will be indescribable.
The Minister used the word “disingenuous”. That is what we all feel about BAE Systems’ actions. As the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull East said, when we met BAE Systems in July—the unions and everyone who has spoken have attested to this—we were told that although things were tough, the company was expecting Hawk contracts and that the most recent round of redundancies had secured the site and the business for the future. We expected those contracts to be landed and those jobs to be secured.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
Order. We have three more speakers. I shall allow them their five minutes each, but I strongly discourage any interventions during their speeches.
Armed Forces Personnel
Nigel Evans Excerpts(12 years, 6 months ago)
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Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Bow) (Lab)
Let me start by adding to the tributes paid by Members on both sides of the House and offering my sincere condolences to the family and friends of the soldier from 4th Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment who was killed yesterday while on patrol in Afghanistan and to the family and friends of Flight Lieutenant Sean Cunningham, the Red Arrows pilot who died on Tuesday, whose dedicated service to the RAF included several operational tours in Iraq. Our thoughts are with them at this most difficult time.
As we approach Remembrance day, it is important to remember all those who have served our country. I am grateful for the opportunity to speak today and delighted to follow the hon. Member for Milton Keynes North (Mark Lancaster) and many other hon. Members who made moving speeches, including my hon. Friend the Member for Barnsley Central (Dan Jarvis).
In my constituency I come across many people who remind me of the courage and determination of so many in the east end during the second world war. I will never forget the elderly lady who survived the blitz but lost her family overnight, or the many other stories of sacrifice and loss. The night of 7 September 1940 marked the start of a sustained bombing attack on London by the Luftwaffe. On the first night alone, 430 civilians were killed and 1,600 were seriously wounded in east London. The structural damage to London was enormous, and the east end was so badly hit that when Buckingham palace was attacked at the height of the bombing, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, said:
“It makes me feel I can look the East End in the face.”
In the Bethnal Green tube disaster, my constituency suffered Britain’s worst single loss of civilian life during the second world war. On the night of 3 March 1943, a large crowd tried to take cover in the tube station during an air raid, but, tragically, on entering the station via the steps on the south side, about 300 people became trapped, and as they slipped and fell on the steps there was a crush, leaving 173 people dead and 60 injured and needing hospital treatment.
In March this year, I joined my constituents and many others from throughout the east end to commemorate the 68th anniversary of that disaster and to remember those who lost their lives so tragically. Their memory is served by the Stairway to Heaven Memorial Trust, which is working hard to establish a fitting memorial to remind future generations of the sacrifices made, and I appeal to the Minister to lend his support to that important campaign, which requires another £200,000 for the project to be completed.
We must honour the memory of those who served our country, and do so not only with our words but with our actions. It is therefore right that we protect the memorials that have been established in honour of those military personnel and civilians who lost their lives. My Labour predecessor, Oona King, fought tirelessly through the Civilians Remembered campaign to establish a memorial to those east enders who lost their lives during the second world war.
The Hermitage memorial garden in Wapping, in an area that my hon. Friend the Member for Poplar and Limehouse (Jim Fitzpatrick) represents, commemorates those civilians who died during the blitz, but recently the memorial was vandalised and protective gates have had to be erected around it. It is of paramount importance that we ensure memorial sites such as the Hermitage garden are protected from vandalism and continue to serve as a reminder of those who sacrificed so much.
By the end of 2014, UK troops will have completed all combat operations in Afghanistan, marking 13 years of UK involvement there. The sacrifice of our armed forces has been great, and we will never forget the 385 UK military personnel who, with their lives, have paid the ultimate price for our country.
The welfare of our troops is paramount, and we must ensure that they have the support they deserve during active service and in retirement. We must ensure also that their families have the support they need. I welcome the Government’s decision to enshrine the military covenant in law, but, as other Members have pointed out, it was disappointing when they failed to support the amendment that the hon. Member for Brigg and Goole (Andrew Percy) tabled to the Public Bodies Bill to retain the office of the chief coroner, which the previous Labour Government proposed.
My constituents are concerned that, without that office, there will be no independent and impartial advice for bereaved families, who should have the right to challenge the findings of any inquiry that they consider to be insufficient.
One of my constituents, Gareth Turkington, who lost his brother, wrote to me and said:
“Our family lost our son and brother Lt Neal Turkington 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles on 13th July 2010 in Nar-e Saraj, the Helmand Province of Afghanistan.
Neal selflessly committed his life to helping make our nation safer and to help make a difference by bringing freedom and prosperity to Afghanistan. His death was as a result of an Afghan National Army soldier carrying out a well planned and executed attack within the ISAF/ANA shared patrol base PB3. This happened despite three similar conflict related attacks at US/ISAF bases, resulting in 24 deaths and up to 40 injured.
My family and I were at his inquest. It was one of the most harrowing experiences of our lives. Today you have the chance to help ensure that both bereaved Armed Forces families and bereaved families in general don’t have to go through everything my family went through.
You have the chance to signal your personal support for all bereaved families by voting for Andrew Percy’s amendment to remove the Chief Coroner from the Public Bodies Bill.”
I appeal once again to the Minister to think again and support those families who are calling for that action.
Finally, our armed forces are among the best in the world. This is a poignant time to remember the huge sacrifice that our servicemen and women have made to defend our country. We must do everything to ensure that our freedom and liberty is protected by supporting them.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
I was not going to intervene on the hon. Lady, but I remind Members to refer to current serving Members by their constituencies.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
Order. The winding-up speeches will begin at half-past 5 and we have four Members who wish to speak. I call Tobias Ellwood.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
I remind the next speaker that she must resume her seat by half-past 5.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Andrew Robathan)
Further to that point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. I was not aware of that. I will most certainly ensure that it is looked into very closely and I will let the hon. Lady know.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
I hope that has clarified the point of order. The Speaker has let it be known on several occasions that when Government announcements are made, they should be made to the House first.
Defence Reform
Nigel Evans Excerpts(12 years, 10 months ago)
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Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
We will now proceed to the debate on House of Lords reform. Before I call the Deputy Prime Minister, let me inform the House that, because the debate is not only well subscribed but over-subscribed, we have introduced a seven-minute limit, which is likely to be reduced later. I ask Front Benchers to take that on board when considering the length of their speeches, and I ask for restraint in interventions, which will clearly lengthen the Front-Bench contributions. I also request that no Members approach the Chair to find out when they will be called in this over-subscribed debate.
Military Covenant
Nigel Evans Excerpts(13 years, 3 months ago)
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Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
Before I call the right hon. Member for East Renfrewshire (Mr Murphy) to move the motion, I should emphasise that a large number of Members wish to speak in this debate, which is why a six-minute limit has been put on Back-Bench speeches. May I also ask for restraint from Front Benchers, so as to enable as many Back Benchers to speak as possible?
Strategic Defence and Security Review
Nigel Evans Excerpts(13 years, 6 months ago)
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Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
Order. A number of colleagues would still like to speak in this important debate, so in order to facilitate the wishes of all Members I am introducing a 10-minute limit on speeches.
Strategic Defence and Security Review
Nigel Evans Excerpts(13 years, 8 months ago)
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Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
Order. We are moving into last-hour territory for Back-Benchers’ contributions to this important debate, and a considerable number of Members still wish to contribute. I hope that all Members will show a lot of time discipline now, so that everyone can get in. Many MPs have been here throughout the entire debate, and it would be very good if people were able to make a contribution.
Stephen Phillips (Sleaford and North Hykeham) (Con)
Notwithstanding the fact that time is pressing, I want to thank the Backbench Business Committee for initiating this debate. I also want to associate myself with the tribute paid by my hon. Friend the Member for North Wiltshire (Mr Gray) to the citizens of Wootton Bassett, who come out, week in, week out, rain or shine, to show just how important our armed forces are to the people of this country.
We have heard a great deal about the Army and, latterly, the Royal Navy. I want to spend a little time focusing on the Royal Air Force, notwithstanding my own very brief service in the Army, which was nowhere near as distinguished as that of my hon. and gallant Friends who have already spoken, or of my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth East (Mr Ellwood). I want to talk about the Royal Air Force because it seems appropriate to do so this week, as we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the victory of the few. That seems to make it a fitting topic. I think that the whole House will concur that the few in our generation have become few enough, and I hope that the Minister will recognise that there is little scope for reduction either in their numbers or in the capability that the Royal Air Force delivers.
At its most fundamental level, the first duty of the Royal Air Force is no different from the first duty of the Government—that is, to ensure the security of the United Kingdom. The Royal Air Force demonstrates to potential adversaries our capabilities and our resolve to ensure our essential freedoms. It is necessary, therefore, that we maintain the capability that we already have to deter attack, if the Government are to act freely and with confidence in the nation’s interests, without fear of reprisal in the form of air attack from abroad. There is a very real threat, not merely from foreign countries but from those who do not necessarily associate themselves with any country. The recent anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the United States serves as a necessary reminder of the potential for terrorist action from the air. Quite apart from that, foreign military aircraft continue to attempt to probe the United Kingdom’s airspace on a surprisingly regular basis. That is a matter of public knowledge.
If the Government therefore wish properly to discharge their first duty of keeping their citizens safe, they must start from the position that the RAF’s current fast jet capabilities are necessary for the protection of our own borders, and not just so that we can go on jaunts overseas. Stereotypically, perhaps, we tend to think of aerial security primarily in terms of the RAF’s quick reaction alert fighter force, which is on call 24/7 to defend the sovereignty of the United Kingdom’s airspace. That is undoubtedly important, yet homeland security—as our American cousins like to call it—is in fact broader than that. At this moment in our national history, economic security could be equally, if not more, significant than the direct physical threat of attack.
As an island nation, we have to be able to secure our lines of communication, not least so that we can trade our way out of the current economic crisis. Self-evidently, the capabilities of the Royal Air Force play a vital role in protecting our air and maritime trade routes. The chaos caused by the recent volcanic ash cloud showed the impact on national life of significant disruption to air transport, as well as the financial consequences that can result from it. It was a timely reminder to us all of how the use of our airspace can be challenged in unexpected ways, and how there could be other innovative threats to our way of life.
Our way of life is also challenged by the asymmetric threats that we see in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the world, and air power is vital in addressing those threats. Any soldier on the ground will say that the RAF is performing a mission-critical role in Afghanistan—in terms of the air bridge to get our troops there and back and to keep them supplied logistically, as alluded to by my hon. Friend the Member for Gosport (Caroline Dinenage); the heavy lift capability within theatre, so vital for keeping ahead of the enemy and ensuring safety and security in movement; and, of course, the threat that the Royal Air Force can create from the air both in support of ground movement and in order to defend our soldiers when they come under attack. It is simply impossible to conceive that the operations in which we are engaged in Afghanistan could be performed without the support of the Royal Air Force.
It was an American general, Lieutenant-General Karl Eikenberry who, admittedly in the context of a smaller troop deployment in Afghanistan in 2007, observed:
“Without Air and Space Power, 500,000 to 600,000 troops would be needed in Afghanistan to achieve the same effects as the 40,000 soldiers, sailors and airmen we have there today. Air and Space Power provides the asymmetric advantage over the Taliban such that no matter where they choose to fight, coalition forces can bring to bear overwhelming firepower in a matter of minutes.”
I could add a number of other things, but time presses. In due course, we will have the chance to see what comes out of the sausage-machine of the strategic defence and security review.
As a number of Members have observed, we do not ourselves know what lies around the corner. The epistemologist Nicola Taylor refers to this difficulty as the “black swans” and a former US Defence Secretary talked about “unknown unknowns”, and my hon. Friends the Members for Harwich and North Essex (Mr Jenkin) and for Salisbury (John Glen) referred to this issue. What I know is that past conflicts tell us that we simply do not know what the future holds, as indeed the Falklands war demonstrated. Had the defence review of 1981 been implemented, we would not have been able to carry out that deployment. I venture to suggest that we therefore need to be very careful about future capabilities so that the few do not become so few that the Government are no longer able to perform their first duty of defending the citizens of this country.
Alec Shelbrooke (Elmet and Rothwell) (Con)
In the moments remaining, I shall try to be brief. I am pleased to be speaking towards the end of today’s debate—there have been some excellent speeches by Members of all parties and a great deal has been brought to the attention of the Minister, which I hope he will feed back to Government circles when they are considering the SDSR.
I put my name forward to speak in today’s debate because I wanted to wave the flag for the Royal Navy. With our Army and armed forces in conflict, they are at the top of our concerns in defence debates—and rightly so. In today’s speeches, when hon. Members spoke about defence, it all came back to the Army. The Air Force is also prevalent in our minds with the 70th anniversary of the battle of Britain and because of the lives that have been lost in the field of conflict by the RAF in the past decade. It is important that we recognise the work of the Royal Navy, which does not always take place in the field of conflict—as is the case with many of the other services, I hasten to add.
Drawing on the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Gosport (Caroline Dinenage) at the end of her speech, it is worth reminding the House that the Royal Navy’s role is extensive: it delivers humanitarian and disaster relief, as we recently saw in Haiti; it evacuates British nationals overseas, and I am not talking about the ash cloud but about what happened in Lebanon in 2006; it carries out counter-terrorism, with Operation Active Endeavour active in the Mediterranean; it carries out counter-piracy, which I shall mention, with the operations in the Gulf of Aden and the horn of Africa; it protects fisheries in UK territorial waters; it protects international shipping lanes, which I shall also mention; it counters drugs trafficking in the Caribbean; and, as shown in the excellent speech made by my hon. Friend the Member for Harwich and North Essex (Mr Jenkin) and by my hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth North (Penny Mordaunt), it plays a role in defence diplomacy, including the joint exercises with international partners.
The Royal Navy is and remains the principal guardian of the silent principles of national security. That point is enforced by the words of the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, who said in July that
“maritime capabilities are not a luxury—they are a necessity. Our ability to control what happens at sea and from the sea is fundamental to our national security and prosperity…our maritime forces are delivering today and they will have a vital role”.
Let me quote the Chamber of Shipping:
“Shipping is at the forefront of the UK’s economic growth”.
It goes on:
“92% of our international trade and 24% of our internal trade is moved by sea…The UK-flag fleet has grown by 530% since 2000…The maritime services sector (shipping, ports and maritime business) contributes £25 billion to the UK’s GDP and supports half a million jobs.”
We know that we face great piracy in our seas. There are still ongoing cases of civilians who are being held ransom. We know that some of our seaports and choke points are very dangerous. As the former First Sea Lord Jonathon Bond said:
“Maritime piracy is increasing, 95% of global trade passes through nine maritime choke points and there are still some 14 British overseas territories or crown dependencies and 5.5 million Britons living overseas.”
When we take the debate forward, we must ensure that we do not merely look at the field of conflict and at what potential conflicts could come from that, although that is vital to the defence of this country. However, let us not forget that this is also a security review and that the security of our country depends on the fact that we are, whether we like it or not, an island nation and one that depends on the merchant navy to keep it safe, secure and prosperous. Without a Royal Navy that can go out and enforce the conditions so that people can sail safely, we would be at a lower point than we are.
I was going to talk about the aircraft carriers, but I see that I am unfortunately running out of time. I shall save that for another debate. However, if we have the aircraft carrier capability and the Trident capability, we will ensure that we have a diplomatic tool. As the Secretary of State said in the House on 21 June:
“We know from historical experience that a declaration of peaceful intent is not sufficient to dissuade aggressors and that a weakening of national defences can encourage them.”—[Official Report, 21 June 2010; Vol. 512, c. 55.]
My hon. Friend the Member for Totnes (Dr Wollaston) made an impassioned and excellent speech. In response to her comment about people who would not hesitate to use nuclear weapons and about our leading the way, I say that those people might hesitate to use them if we had a way of counteracting which would threaten their security.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
I am grateful for Members’ brevity; we got everyone in. We can now start the wind-ups.
Nick Harvey
Maybe, he says. I should like to echo the words of the Defence Committee Chairman and others in paying tribute to the right hon. Gentleman for his work throughout his time in defence. He is very, very highly regarded inside the Ministry of Defence. He is remembered not only with affection, but with a great deal of respect, as somebody who was able to see the wood for the trees, take a decision quickly and get it right. He has earned a big reputation in that area, and it will go with him.
The right hon. Gentleman’s plea in mitigation that the gap between the programme and the budget—upon which I charged his party earlier—had shrunk during his tenure is possibly, just about, true, and to the extent that it is I commend him for it, but he served only to make the point that the mismatch between the programme and the budget had existed for a long time. Indeed, in all truth it dates right back to the strategic defence review of 1998, which set out boldly on quite a sensible and well regarded path, but it was underfunded from the first year and the gap continued to grow thereafter.
However, we wish the right hon. Gentleman well and thank him for the contribution that he made. He will be remembered by both the armed forces and the Ministry with a great deal of respect and admiration.
We will publish the SDSR later in the autumn, and I am encouraged by the fact that there is a degree of cross-party agreement on what we are trying to achieve. I hope that that will be sustained when it comes to understanding some of the tough decisions that we will inevitably have to make. The public and the armed forces will understand when we in this House seek to represent the interests of our constituents; what they will not understand or appreciate is if politics infects the response to the SDSR. We have to make incredibly important decisions and keep in mind at all times the shape and configuration of the forces that we think we will need in 10 years’ time, at the end of the period that the SDSR is considering; but we have to get ourselves from where we are today, in our financial situation today, to where we want to be then, and at the same time sustain in Afghanistan the operation that we are undertaking there. It is gaining momentum and genuinely advancing towards the objectives that we have set.
Nothing will be done to undermine the work of our forces on the front line, but those difficult decisions will, nevertheless, have to be made, and I am sure that we will return to them in this House in due course, when the decisions have been taken and the situation is understood for all to debate.
Question put and agreed to.
Resolved,
That this House has considered the matter of the Strategic Defence and Security Review and future of the UK’s armed forces.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
I wish Members from all parts of the House a happy, fruitful and interesting conference recess.