Penny Mordaunt
Main Page: Penny Mordaunt (Conservative - Portsmouth North)Department Debates - View all Penny Mordaunt's debates with the Cabinet Office
(12 years, 9 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
The Prime Minister
I think the Conservative party is entirely united in thinking that Britain is not right to sign this treaty.
Penny Mordaunt (Portsmouth North) (Con)
I congratulate the Prime Minister on defending Britain’s interests, and I note what he says about Iran and Syria. Does he think that if we had a common EU defence policy, HMS Dauntless would now be readying to sail to the south Atlantic?
The Prime Minister
The point is this: we should make sure that NATO is the cornerstone of our defence and we should be very clear about our own defence responsibilities—I have spoken about the Falklands. We need to win the argument in Europe that there is no point in having endless competing defence headquarters. What we need throughout NATO, particularly in Europe, is greater defence capacity, and we need to encourage other European partners to invest in that.