Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Ministry of Defence

Oral Answers to Questions

Richard Drax Excerpts
Monday 13th March 2023

(1 year, 2 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Eleanor Laing Portrait Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)
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Order. We will not have interventions from people who are sitting down. There are plenty of opportunities to ask questions when you are standing up.

Richard Drax Portrait Richard Drax (South Dorset) (Con)
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Madam Deputy Speaker, may I say how nice it is to see you back in your place? It is a very great pleasure.

I commend my right hon. Friend the Defence Secretary and his excellent Front Bench team, because I know for a fact that they are fighting for every single penny they can get. However, as has been said, and I must agree, £5 billion is not sufficient to ensure that our core armed forces are properly equipped and prepared for—God forbid—something we all dread, as the world potentially totters towards world war three. What on earth is going through the minds of Treasury officials?