Defence Spending
Paul Uppal Excerpts(10 years, 6 months ago)
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Mr Kevan Jones (North Durham) (Lab)
I thank the Backbench Business Committee for proposing today’s debate and the hon. Member for Basildon and Billericay (Mr Baron) for introducing it. We have heard 11 contributions on the broad theme of the level of defence expenditure, while some of the new and developing threats to our nation have also been highlighted.
The debate is timely in light of last week’s National Audit Office report on Army 2020. I have seen many NAO and Select Committee reports over the years, but I have to say that this one has to be the most damning and critical I have ever read. The report is important, because it sums up all the shortcomings that characterise this Government’s position on defence. It also shows how the Defence Secretary simply failed to do his basic homework when it came to the Army 2020 reforms.
On page 7, the report says:
“The Department did not test whether increasing the trained strength of the Army Reserve to 30,000 was feasible”.
On page 8, it says:
“The Department did not fully assess the value for money of its decision to reduce the size of the Army.”
On page 19, it goes on to say:
“The Department…did not have a mature workforce model or good data to help it accurately assess how long it would take to recruit the required number of reserves”.
This is not rocket science—these are basic things that the Secretary of State for Defence failed to do in putting forward this defence reform.
Is it any wonder, then, that recruitment to the reserves is stalling? As of April 2014, the trained strength of the Army Reserve was 19,400 personnel, which has actually fallen in number since the plan was announced in 2012. That means that the reserves have recruited 67% fewer personnel than was planned for at this stage, and it is clear exactly how that has been allowed to happen. A series of preventable IT blunders were made because Ministers failed to follow through on their contractual obligations to Capita, the company selected to manage Army and armed forces recruitment. As a result of that basic incompetence, the taxpayer has incurred additional costs of around £70 million, written off an extra £6 million and, on top of all that, is spending an extra £1 million a month until the problem can be solved.
Since his first day in office, the Defence Secretary has prioritised the Treasury bidding and the need to ensure that the MOD meets the Chancellor’s deadline for cuts above all else. It is clear, and the NAO confirms, that there is only one element of the Army reforms on which the Government are making steady progress. It will not surprise Members to learn that, according to page 9 of the NAO report,
“The Army is ahead of its target to reduce its military staff…and deliver the staffing savings required by its reduced budget.”
Last week 1,000 more servicemen and women were made redundant, in addition to the thousands who had already lost their jobs. If Ministers had put as much effort into the detail of the Army 2020 reforms as they are putting into the issuing of P45s, Army 2020 might not be in its present parlous state.
Paul Uppal (Wolverhampton South West) (Con)
One sentiment has featured very largely in all the speeches that we have heard this afternoon. Obviously, much has been said about the 2% figure to which we aspire, but a deeper theme has emerged. It has been pointed out that modern politicians are often subject to short-term pressures, but these are, in fact, very long-term issues. I say that as someone who comes from a dual cultural background. When I speak to people in the east, they tend to say that we do not often have the stomach, the commitment or the long-term view to tackle these issues head on.
Mr Jones
This is not about a long-term plan; it is about basic competence, which the NAO report has clearly called into question. The report warns that there are “significant risks” to the Army’s operational capability because of the Government’s incompetence in handling these reforms. That is why we have called on the Government not to proceed with their redundancy programme until they have seen evidence that the recruitment of reserves has increased enough to fill the gap.
Defence Ministers have developed a habit of returning to a small number of stock phrases and soundbites, usually when their record is under pressure, and I look forward to the Minister’s trotting out a few of them today. No doubt we shall hear—as this has been their mindset from the start—that the Government had no choice but to make these reductions, because they had inherited a £38 billion “black hole” from their predecessors. Let me, for the umpteenth time, quote from the National Audit Office’s 2009 report. It states:
“The size of the gap is highly sensitive to the budget growth assumptions used. If the Defence budget remained constant in real terms, and using the Department’s forecast for defence inflation of 2.7 per cent, the gap would now be £6 billion over the ten years”—
not the one year that has been cited by some Government Members. No doubt the Government do not want to talk about the fact that the “black hole” has now increased to £74 billion because of the 9% spending reduction in 2010. No one seems to know where they got the £38 billion figure from. I suppose they think that if they repeat it for long enough, people will actually believe in it.
Remarkably, it was the former Secretary of State, the right hon. Member for North Somerset (Dr Fox), who first claimed, in September 2011, that he had eradicated the “black hole” in less than a year. Six months later, the present Secretary of State claimed that he had plugged the gap. Perhaps the Minister will tell us who exactly should be credited with this feat. Those two individuals have clearly missed their vocation: if they can make a £38 billion “black hole” disappear in less than 12 months, they should have gone to the Treasury rather than the Ministry of Defence.
At a time when the Government are sacking highly skilled, experienced and brave servicemen and women and scrapping key elements of defence equipment, Ministers must be honest with our forces and the public about why they underspent their 2012-13 budget by almost £2 billion. They also tell us that the UK still has the fourth largest defence budget in the world. That may be true, but we on the Opposition Benches believe such a statistic has little meaning if the allocated budget is not actually being spent, and it is on this count that the Government have failed spectacularly. They gave us aircraft carriers without aircraft. They scrapped the Nimrod programme when three of the aircraft were almost 90% complete, leaving the MOD reliant on Twitter to counter the maritime surveillance threat. They have also sacked regular soldiers before waiting to see whether increased reserve numbers would be able to meet the shortfall.
As the NAO report summarises, the Government
“did not fully assess the value for money of its decision to reduce the size of the Army.”
If the Minister reads the report, he will see that the fact of the matter is that recruiting reservists will be more expensive than having regulars, and that cost will have to be picked up by the Treasury some time in the future. I refer him to page 8 of the report if he wants to read that later.
It is clear that when deciding the future size of the Army, the Government decided on cost savings as their first principle, rather than any strategic underpinning of their decision. The NAO report makes clear on page 6 that
“The future size of the Army was determined by the need to make financial savings”—
an approach which has characterised the MOD under this Government.
Commentators and the Select Committee agree that, blindsided by the desire to achieve savings above all else, strategic considerations have been sacrificed in favour of reductions in personnel and capability. Unfortunately, some people are having to carry the can for this—unfairly, I would suggest. The current Chief of the Defence Staff offered perhaps the most candid description of Army 2020 when he told the Select Committee on Defence:
“I remember the genesis very clearly. It was a financially driven plan. We had to design a new structure that included the run-down of the 102,000 Regular Army to 82,000, which is pretty well advanced now, to follow a funding line that was driven by the austerity with which everybody is very familiar…It triggered the complete redesign of the Army.”
First World War Commemoration
Paul Uppal Excerpts(11 years, 1 month ago)
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Paul Uppal (Wolverhampton South West) (Con)
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and belated congratulations on your elevation.
As part of the commemoration, recollection and thinking about history that we are all going to talk about this afternoon in the Chamber, I want to speak about the Sikh contribution in the great war. I know that much has been made of the contribution of all Commonwealth forces, but the Sikh contribution is sometimes overlooked. I will also refer to the contribution of Wolverhampton. It would be remiss of me not to do so. If I cannot do this as a Sikh Member of Parliament for Wolverhampton South West, I am not entirely sure what my purpose is in this place.
At the start of the war, Sikhs made up a tiny percentage of an undivided India, yet they were contributing 22% of the British Indian army. More than 138,000 Indian troops fought in Belgium and France and over a quarter of these would, unfortunately, become casualties. After the bloody battle of Neuve Chapelle in 1915, the Sikh regiments had lost nearly 80% of their men, with three regiments standing at just 16% of their original complement. The valour and courage of Sikh soldiers was rightly commended by British generals. General Sir Frank Messery, commenting on the Sikh contribution in both world wars, noted that the only physical protection that Sikhs had was their turban—a symbol of our faith.
General Sir James Wilcox, the Commander of the Indian Corps, stated that the Sikh regiments responded with only
“their valour, their rifles and two machine guns per battalion”
to the heavy German bombardment of mortars, hand grenades and high explosive shells.
What intrigues many is what would motivate these men to fight in a war thousands of miles away, for a cause that did not seem too relevant to them. For some it may have been the financial reward, but for many it was their duty to bring honour to their clan by fighting bravely like warriors. Perhaps their motivation is best captured by Indar Singh, a Sikh soldier fighting on the Somme in September 1916, who wrote home:
“It is quite impossible that I should return alive. Don’t be grieved at my death, because I shall die arms in hand, wearing the warrior’s clothes. This is the most happy death that anyone can die.”
Those are strong words and, in the modern context, perhaps difficult to understand, but when we think of that young man, thousands of miles away from home, they show something of his psyche and his values and beliefs.
More than 4 million men and women from British colonies volunteered in the first and second world wars. For many Members here, I know this is a matter of great pride, and indeed it is for me personally. My own maternal great-grandfather, Jawala Singh Khela, fought in the still-relevant theatre of Basra during the great war.
I am proud, too, of the contribution that was made to the war effort by the town, as it was then, of Wolverhampton. At the outbreak of war in 1914, many men enthusiastically flocked to the town hall to sign up, eager to help the national effort in a war they believed would be “over by Christmas”. As a bustling industrial town, Wolverhampton was ready to contribute to the provision of resources for the front line. Villiers Engineering Company produced ammunition, and Guy Motors became the largest manufacturer of firing mechanisms for depth charges in the country. H. M. Hobson Ltd manufactured carburettors for engines, and the Sunbeam Motor Car Company produced staff cars and commercial vehicles for the military, ambulances for the Red Cross and engines for aircraft and high-speed naval craft. It is ironic that the Villiers Engineering Company and its Sunbeam motor manufacturing unit, which was on Upper Villiers street, is now a Sikh temple, of which I am a trustee.
Wolverhampton showed its proud, hospitable credentials in the great war by providing accommodation for displaced Belgian refugees. In September 1914, the local refugee committee and Roman Catholics in the area offered to accommodate 25 refugees, and the offer was accepted by the local authority. The following month, two hostels were established in Finchfield and Pennfields, and by March 1915 a further three hostels had been set up.
Wolverhampton is noted for its generosity. I am proud to represent a city that displays an outward-looking and accommodating attitude to those most in need. I am proud not only of our city’s industrial contribution, but of its many war heroes. I will highlight one individual in particular. Douglas Morris Harris was a wireless telegrapher on board an Italian drifter, the Floandi, which was being used to blockade the port of Kotor and prevent the Austrian navy from accessing the Adriatic sea. In May 1917 the drifter was attacked by the Austrians, but Harris remained dutifully at his post and unfortunately lost his life at the age of just 19. For his bravery he was awarded one of Italy’s highest honours, and his bust still stands proudly in the grounds of St Peter’s church in Wolverhampton, adjacent to the cenotaph, which I have the pleasure of being able to see from my constituency office window.
It was no surprise that when the war came to an end in 1918 the people of Wolverhampton greeted the news with relief, happiness and thanksgiving, as well as sorrow and reflection on what, and indeed who, had been lost. It was certainly a sorrowful time for the Belgian refugee Peter van Cleven, whose son had been killed on the battlefield just a few days before the war ended. In 1919 the local authority established a war memorial committee to create a roll of remembrance to honour over 1,700 men from Wolverhampton who left home to fight but never returned.
On Sunday I will be standing at the cenotaph at St Peter’s church, shoulder to shoulder with veterans of previous conflicts, to honour the gallantry, bravery and sacrifice of all those who have laid down their lives so that we can enjoy our freedom. I will remember poignantly the contribution of Sikh regiments and the esteem in which they were held by British generals, and I will reflect on the heroic sacrifices of the city of Wolverhampton, both on the home front and the front line. The coming weekend will be a great time for reflection across our nation. I hope that we will never neglect our duties in remembering the fallen.
Army 2020
Paul Uppal Excerpts(12 years, 5 months ago)
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Mr Hammond
Yes, I can certainly give my hon. Friend that assurance. Everyone in the regiment will be treated equally as we move forward, and matters about the preservation of the antecedent names are matters for the regiment.
Paul Uppal (Wolverhampton South West) (Con)
Regarding the recruitment of future reservists, may I impress on the Secretary of State that it is vital for our armed forces to talk about the important role they have, particularly in providing positive male role models for many young men? It is vital that we impress upon the British public the important work that the armed forces do abroad and domestically.
Mr Hammond
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We are reinforcing that point by introducing 100 additional cadet forces into state schools and academies over the next few years.
Oral Answers to Questions
Paul Uppal Excerpts(13 years, 2 months ago)
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Greg Hands (Chelsea and Fulham) (Con)
1. What steps he is taking to establish security relationships in South Asia.
Paul Uppal (Wolverhampton South West) (Con)
6. What steps he is taking to establish security relationships in South Asia.
The Secretary of State for Defence (Dr Liam Fox)
First, I am sure the House will wish to join me in paying tribute to Lance Corporal Jonathan McKinlay of 1st Battalion the Rifles and Marine David Fairbrother of Kilo Company, 42 Commando Royal Marines, who were killed in Afghanistan on 14 and 19 September respectively. Our thoughts, as ever, are with their families and friends, for whom this will be an immense personal tragedy.
The south Asia region is one of the United Kingdom’s highest engagement priorities, and the Ministry of Defence enjoys strong historic relationships with most countries in the region. We have developed a broad range of positive initiatives to enhance co-operation between Ministers, senior officials and military officers, and continue to work to broaden and deepen those links in support of the Government's strategic objectives.
Dr Fox
I shall be delighted to do that, especially in front of so many Members with a new interest in defence.
In 1996, when I was a Minister in the Foreign Office, I worked on what became known as the Fox agreement, which was part of the early peace talks in Sri Lanka. In recent years I have been attempting to work again for reconciliation in that country, and to encourage investment in it. As I said when I spoke there recently, there will be no future for Sri Lanka unless all citizens, whatever their gender, religion or ethnic origin, are treated in the same way and allowed to realise their full potential.
Paul Uppal
I thank my right hon. Friend for the sterling work he has done in respect of Sri Lanka. Will he elaborate on the work that he has done in relation to the Sri Lanka Development Trust, and specifically on the work that Ministers have done in that regard?
Dr Fox
As I have said, the point of involvement in Sri Lanka is to create greater stability which will contribute to stability in the region. I was particularly keen to see a mechanism for investment that could reduce some of the regulatory restrictions imposed by the Sri Lankan Government, on the basis that a proportion of the profits would go into social projects that would benefit ethnic minorities. I still hope that that project will succeed, and give it my full support.
Oral Answers to Questions
Paul Uppal Excerpts(13 years, 5 months ago)
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Karen Lumley (Redditch) (Con)
3. What recent assessment he has made of the security situation in the middle east and north Africa; and if he will make a statement.
Paul Uppal (Wolverhampton South West) (Con)
8. What recent assessment he has made of the security situation in the middle east and north Africa; and if he will make a statement.
Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)
16. What recent assessment he has made of the security situation in the middle east and north Africa; and if he will make a statement.
Nick Harvey
I am pleased to give precisely that confirmation. As the Chief of the Defence Staff has said, we can sustain the operation for as long as necessary. We have flexible and adaptable forces. That is not to say that sustaining operations will not put stress on people and assets, but we are perfectly capable of doing so, and nobody should be in any doubt about our determination.
Paul Uppal
It is as well to remind the House that the international community came together to avert an injustice and a massacre in Benghazi. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is essential that we keep that international community cohesion and effort on this most pressing issue?
Oral Answers to Questions
Paul Uppal Excerpts(13 years, 7 months ago)
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Nick Harvey
It is certainly not the case that we always go for the option of dismantling IEDs, as some of them are destroyed, but as part of the ongoing effort to counter the IED threat it is absolutely vital that we have an understanding of how they are made and who is making them. It is absolutely essential intelligence to us—to garner that information on occasions—and we have no intention of changing that approach.
Paul Uppal (Wolverhampton South West) (Con)
15. What progress has been made on his Department’s consultation on equipment, support and technology for UK defence and security.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Peter Luff)
My colleagues in the Home Office and I are very pleased with the results of the public consultation, which ended on 31 March, on the recent Green Paper. We used a number of mechanisms, notably conferences, regional visits and a dedicated website, to encourage wide participation, and we received 143 separate written reports from individuals, companies and organisations, as well as more than 200 comments on the website. We are now analysing the information received and will publish a summary of the consultation responses later this year, alongside the planned White Paper.
Paul Uppal
Given the value of the defence sector to our economy, what steps are being taken to ensure that prosperity can continue to flourish, and that the whole UK economy can benefit?
Peter Luff
I strongly agree with my hon. Friend. Ministers in the Department are committed to the Government’s policy of export-led growth, whereby the Government are making radical steps to ensure that responsible defence exports are actively promoted. This year I have visited India, Japan and Turkey on precisely that mission, and all members of my ministerial team have made similar such visits to ensure that the outcome my hon. Friend rightly seeks is achieved.
Strategic Defence and Security Review
Paul Uppal Excerpts(14 years, 3 months ago)
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Paul Uppal (Wolverhampton South West) (Con)
You have asked for brevity, Mr Deputy Speaker, and I will genuinely try to honour that request for the speakers who will follow me.
I wish to speak about an issue that concerns the welfare of the armed forces, and particularly about a constituent of mine whose case was highlighted last week in my local newspaper, the Express and Star. More broadly, I feel that the points that the case raises are directly related to our troop deployments in Afghanistan and illustrate the severity of the problems we have to confront there. They are also related to the morale of our soldiers.
Last week, as the Deputy Prime Minister read out the names of our brave soldiers who had fallen over the recess period, my heart sank as the roll call just did not seem to stop. It took an eternity to complete. Beyond that heartbreaking toll of young British lives lost in Afghanistan, an increasing number of men and women are disabled by their injuries. One of those is my constituent Luke Cole, a recipient of the military cross.
Three years ago last week, reservist Private Cole was part of 2nd Battalion, Mercian Regiment, clearing the Taliban from an area in the south of Helmand province. He was in a section of four who had just finished clearing a building when they were trapped by a well-set Taliban ambush. At this point, I think it only fair that I use Luke’s own words to describe the situation that he encountered on that day, as the House often hears about those who have fallen but very rarely gets a real picture of the brave commitment taken on by those who fight on our behalf. He said:
“As we walked round from a building onto a patch of open ground, they took us by surprise with really heavy fire—AK47s, RPGs”—
rocket-propelled grenades. He continued:
“You could hear the bullets cracking over your head...you know that scene at the start of Saving Private Ryan? It was just like that.
I was hit instantly in the left leg. My mate, he was injured as well, shot in the head. I crawled over to him and started to give him first aid.
Bullets were flying past my head and hitting the ground around me. Rocket-propelled grenades were exploding but I knew I had a job to do.”
Luke refused morphine for his pain as he waited for his colleagues to get him out.
Luke Cole kept dozens of Taliban at bay, but three more bullets thudded into his rifle. Finally, after two hours of intense, non-stop fighting, he was hit again. To quote Luke once more:
“The shot went through the left hip and the bullet exited through my abdomen. I knew it was serious, I could see that my stomach had been torn open. I was on my own for about two hours but my commander was in touch with me through my radio. I told my commander ‘I’ve been hit’ and he said ‘Yes, we know’, and I said, ‘No, I’ve been hit again’. They asked me how I was doing and I said, ‘Just get me out’.”
The initial blast of Taliban fire had killed two other soldiers. Despite his dreadful injuries, Luke managed to keep firing his damaged weapon, pumping shot after shot at the enemy, keeping them at bay until rescuers hauled him clear.
Private Cole was awarded a military cross, and a further military cross was given posthumously to one of his fellow soldiers who fell on that fateful day. Luke’s leg is now damaged and he has suffered a hole in his hip and internal injuries. His injuries mean that he can never go back to his previous job as a forklift engineer, nor can he achieve his hope of becoming a full-time soldier.
It is often said that a society can be judged by the way it treats its elderly and its children. I am pretty sure that we can add soldiers to that list. After all, they put their lives on the line so that we can sleep safely in our beds at night. To cut to the chase, Luke has been advised that he may be retired on a Territorial Army pension rather than that of a regular soldier. He has been treated as a member of the TA, despite the fact that he was shot during a 12-month tour of duty with the regular Army unit that he intended to join full time. I think that most right-minded people would find that hard to fathom, and I ask the Minister to revisit the case.
Paul Uppal
I will not because time is pressing. Normally, I would give way, but I have to press on.
I have often heard the Secretary of State talk about the differences that he has noticed in the treatment of armed forces personnel by our American cousins and by us. Luke was awarded the military cross for his bravery, and one can never put a price on that. However, such bravery is worthy of a dignified and respectful acknowledgement of the sacrifice that our soldiers make.
In view of that particularly pertinent personal story, may I recommend to the Secretary of State that he look at the anomaly, so that when all our soldiers are on a tour of duty, they are compensated on a fair and just basis? I trust he will agree that that is the very least we can do for those who have done so much for us.