Defence Nuclear Enterprise; Annual Update

Wes Streeting Excerpts

Tuesday 15th September 2026 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Defence (Wes Streeting)]

I am today placing in the Library of the House the Defence Nuclear Enterprise 2026 annual update to Parliament.

Since its inception, the United Kingdom has used its nuclear deterrent every day. It remains as relevant today as it was then. Since taking office in 2024, this Government have made clear our commitment to maintaining the UK’s nuclear deterrent, highlighted through our triple lock. This guarantees the building of four Dreadnought nuclear submarines in Barrow-in-Furness, that we will maintain our continuous at-sea deterrent, and the delivery of all future upgrades to ensure its safety and effectiveness. This commitment is even more critical today than it was then and was reinforced through the strategic defence review and the defence investment plan, which outlined this Government’s plan to invest £63 billion into the UK’s deterrent over the next four years, representing more than a £20 billion increase on the previous four.

Over the past 12 months the Defence Nuclear Enterprise —DNE—has continued to drive delivery of our programmes that are of critical importance to the security of the UK and that of our Allies.

In September 2025 we marked major milestones with the steel cut for Dreadnought Boat 4, marking the start of its construction, and the commissioning of HMS Agamemnon into the Royal Navy. In July 2026, the Prime Minister announced an £8.4 billion investment in industry to begin delivery phase 4 of the Dreadnought build programme, supporting tens of thousands of jobs and delivering growth in every postcode. We are transforming infrastructure across our locations, including at Rolls-Royce Submarines Ltd’s Raynesway facility and BAE Systems’ Barrow shipyard, to support a continuous production rate of one submarine every 18 months, as announced in the spending review. The warhead programme, supported by £15 billion of investment over this Parliament, continues to progress as we develop our replacement warhead, Astraea.

Delivering value for money across our programmes is an absolute priority, and we are driving productivity across the enterprise and breaking down barriers to delivery. This includes working with partners across Government to deliver the recommendations of the Fingleton review of nuclear regulation, which identified significant opportunities to streamline regulation, speeding the delivery of nuclear projects. The Government have accepted the review in full and committed to implementation by the end of 2027.

In June, the Government announced that they had agreed to seek to establish a new House of Commons-only Committee, appointed by the Prime Minister, to conduct scrutiny of DNE expenditure and programmes. As recommended in the SDR, and by the Public Accounts Committee, this will enhance our ability to demonstrate to Parliament how the DNE is delivering value for money for the taxpayer.

I look forward to driving this work over the next year, working together in the face of ever-evolving uncertainty and conflict across the globe.

The attachment: Defence Nuclear Enterprise 2026 (DNO-26-057 DNE 2026 Annual Update to Parliament_v05-1.pdf), can be viewed online at: http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2026-09-15/HCWS345/

[HCWS345]

Ukraine and Russia

Wes Streeting Excerpts

Thursday 10th September 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Secretary of State for Defence (Wes Streeting)]

With permission, I will make my first statement to the House as Secretary of State for Defence on Ukraine, the ongoing threat from Russia and the Government’s approach. It is not yet clear whether freedom or tyranny will define the 21st century. What is clear is that the United Kingdom will not be a bystander in that struggle. The frontline is Ukraine. In Kyiv, on my first overseas trip, I saw for myself what modern tyranny looks like. President Putin’s illegal and unprovoked invasion is a challenge to the collective security of all of us in Europe. History—especially the history of our continent—teaches us that when imperialist ambitions go unchallenged, leaders like President Putin come back for more. That is why Ukraine’s security is our security and why we will not waver for one second in our support for Ukraine.

This week, I co-chaired my first meeting of the Ukraine defence contact group with my German counterpart Boris Pistorius, alongside Ukraine’s new Defence Minister Evgeniy Khmara and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. We know that President Putin, facing the reality that Russian casualties surpassed 1.5 million this week, is preparing to intensify his barbaric attacks against civilian and energy targets over the coming months. When I met President Zelensky, I heard loud and clear the vital importance of supporting Ukraine through this winter, as did the Prime Minister. We promised to mobilise allies and provide more support wherever we can.

We are delivering on that commitment, strengthening Ukraine’s defences and, alongside more than 50 nations, converting commitment into capability. This week I announced that the UK is pledging £100 million to support the rapid delivery of air defence interceptors in response to a direct request from Ukraine. We also reaffirmed our commitment to provide more than 120,000 drones to Ukraine over the course of this year. In total, the United Kingdom has committed £25 billion for Ukraine. That includes nearly 20 million rounds of small arms ammunition, more than 1 million artillery shells, more than 100,000 drones and thousands of air defence missiles and armoured vehicles.

Winter in Ukraine is no longer a season; it is a weapon. In Kyiv, the Prime Minister and I saw at first hand the destructive consequences of this war, but we also experienced the spirit and the strength of the Ukrainian people. The message we delivered on behalf of this Government, and on behalf of the British people, was unequivocal: we will be with Ukraine for as long as it takes. That commitment is built on the rock-solid foundations laid by our Labour and Conservative predecessors, who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukraine from day one. Boris Johnson pledged anti-armour missiles before Russia’s invasion. In one of his first acts in office, my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister handed over blueprints for British-made missile components so that Ukraine can produce long-range weapons on its own assembly lines.

It has been a striking feature, during an especially divisive period in British politics, that support for Ukraine unites this House. One of the things I feel most strongly about in this role is showing our allies, but particularly our adversaries, that there is an enormous amount of consensus and national unity when it comes to defence. That unity is itself a projection of strength and deterrence, so I say to colleagues from across the House: it is your job, and the job of Parliament, to hold us to account. It is right that you do so, but let us not manufacture difference where it does not exist. On this issue, more than any other, there is far more that unites us than divides us, and we have a collective responsibility to level with the British people. If the first duty of Government is to keep our country safe, that is now a greater and more urgent responsibility than it has been for generations.

The threats we face are not only evolving; they are getting closer to home. Every day, the UK and our allies encounter espionage, cyber-attacks and military posturing by hostile states. Just yesterday, a 31-year-old British man was charged under the National Security Act 2023 over alleged contact with Russia’s military intelligence agency. Alongside these threats comes the bellicose rhetoric that we hear from the Kremlin. Russia is constantly probing us and testing us, and the tragic irony of where we find ourselves is that Russia sees the UK and NATO as a threat that, in reality, simply does not exist.

The UK is not at war with Russia, nor do we seek confrontation with Russia, and nor do we have any quarrel with the Russian people. All we seek to do is to defend freedom, democracy, our interests, our allies and our values. Contrary to the propaganda, NATO has always been a defensive alliance, and if there is one thing that President Putin has achieved through the war in Ukraine, it has been to strengthen NATO and our commitment to our collective defence and security. Moscow should be in no doubt that we are ready to defend every inch of NATO, should Russia attack.

Knowing the gravity of the threats our country faces, this Government have overseen the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the cold war. We are already investing £15 billion more in defence than we were at the last spending review, and over the next four years we will be investing £298 billion. As a percentage of GDP, we have gone from 2.3% when Labour came to office two years ago to reaching 2.7% next year. We know that this Prime Minister and this Chancellor are both fully committed to funding our nation’s defence, including meeting our NATO commitment of 3.5% by 2035 and setting out an earlier 3% commitment at the next spending review. No one disputes that there is more to do to get there, but it is important to emphasise how much new money is already going into defence.

That money is what allows us to do the things we need to do to strengthen our deterrence so that our adversaries think twice about attacking us, and to strengthen our capabilities so that we have the resources to fight and win if deterrence fails. That means making sure that every penny—both new money and money from existing budgets—is spent wisely, so that our military has the equipment, the training and the kit that it needs to keep us safe. It means making sure that we are constantly pushing the frontier of defence innovation, so that we have an advantage over our enemies. And it means making sure that we are creating more skilled jobs, more training, and more opportunities for people and businesses in our own country—unashamedly backing British to reindustrialise places where defence runs in the blood. That is how we will keep our country safe in today’s more dangerous and volatile world.

As I take on this role, I feel the considerable weight of responsibility on my shoulders to proudly and robustly defend our country, our people, our values and our allies. I am lucky that in this endeavour I am supported by our exceptional armed forces, some of the smartest brains on the planet, and the extraordinary service of those working around the clock and around the globe to protect us. I have seen the capabilities that this country has, and they are considerable. We should have enormous pride in what our country does, let alone what we can do in the future. We will build a Britain worth fighting for, and a Britain capable of fighting for it. That is our mission, and that is what we will do. I commend this statement to the House.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Mr Mark Francois (Rayleigh and Wickford) (Con)]

On behalf of the shadow Defence team, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome the new Defence Secretary—Labour’s third in three months—to his place and to thank him for advance sight of this important statement. On a personal note, we have a mutual friend in Labour councillor Gareth Barrett, who I know would be very proud to see his long-time friend standing at the Dispatch Box and representing the Ministry of Defence.

It is over four years since Russia’s brutal and illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but as the Ukrainians reminded me when I visited Kyiv in February, the Russo-Ukrainian war has actually been raging for 12 years, because Putin’s Russia illegally annexed Crimea and parts of the Donbas in 2014. That is longer than both the first and second world wars combined. I am sure that I speak for the whole House in paying tribute to the Ukrainians for their fierce and determined resistance. They are fighting for the values of freedom and democracy, which this House has represented for centuries, so when we say, “Slava Ukraini!”, we mean it.

On my trip to Ukraine, the Speaker of the Rada said something that I will never forget: “When you go back to London, tell them we know the Russians better than anybody, and if we fall, you’re next.” My hon. Friend the Member for South Shropshire (Stuart Anderson), who is joining our shadow Defence team, has just returned from Kyiv overnight. He reports how the Russians cynically suspended missile strikes on the capital while those on the American delegation were present, but resumed the strikes almost immediately after their departure. Tragically, a number of innocent civilians were murdered in Kyiv last night.

On supporting Ukraine and brave President Zelensky, there has been absolute solidarity between ourselves and the Labour party. When I served in the Ministry of Defence following the 2014 invasion, we began training Ukrainian troops on Salisbury Plain via what was then known as Operation Orbital, and that continues today via Operation Interflex. Between them, they have trained over 50,000 Ukrainian troops on British soil. The House will no doubt recall the very powerful footage of columns of Russian tanks being destroyed in 60 seconds in highly co-ordinated anti-tank ambushes north of Kyiv in February 2022, which were carried out by Ukrainian troops using UK-manufactured NLAW anti-tank weapons. Had it not been for that kit and the training that accompanied it, the Russians would likely be having lunch in Kyiv today.

We all want to see a ceasefire in Ukraine but, as the Ukrainians themselves would tell us, not at any price. The Government’s policy is to participate in a “coalition of the willing” in order to help maintain a ceasefire—I hope the Secretary of State can confirm that again. However, were we to deploy the British Army into Ukraine, our troops would need to be adequately trained and equipped. A few moments ago, the Defence Secretary invited the House to hold him to account. Taking him at his word, I must press him on some extremely worrying reports—first published in The Times on 3 September, and amplified in the Defence Eye journal on Tuesday—that British Army training is being seriously curtailed in order to provide in-year efficiency savings— “cuts”, in pub English— at the Treasury’s behest. For the financial year 2026-27, the MOD has been given a ridiculous efficiency savings target of over £3 billion, with much of it to come from operational spending such as training exercises. The Army’s share of that is reportedly £1.2 billion.

Given the seriousness of this situation, I wish to ask the Defence Secretary three very important questions. First, is it true that training in both the regular and the reserves is being materially constricted to save this money at the Treasury’s behest? Secondly, what actions is he as Defence Secretary, no doubt in consultation with the Chief of the General Staff, taking to push back against these pernicious in-year funding cuts imposed by the Treasury? What discussions has he had with the new Chancellor, who, ironically, resigned as Defence Secretary in June because Labour would not commit to spend 3% of GDP on defence by 2030? The Government cannot keep kicking this can down the road. Thirdly, in which year specifically will Labour now commit to spend 3% of GDP on defence, as the Conservatives are now pledged to do by 2030 at the latest? We will not deter the likes of Vladimir Putin by capping bus fares.

In summary, we are four-square with the Ukrainians. We support the Government in supporting them, but they must support our troops, so what are they doing to train them?

[Wes Streeting]

First, I thank the right hon. Gentleman for the constructive spirit with which he responded to my statement, and I very much hope we can maintain that on both sides of the House. I have certainly enjoyed my early conversations with the shadow Secretary of State, the hon. Member for South Suffolk (James Cartlidge), so we will continue to work in that spirit, and maximise and project unity globally wherever we possibly can.

The right hon. Gentleman referenced that I am the third Defence Secretary in recent months, for reasons that are evident, and I give him an undertaking to add this to the retention priorities for the workforce. I made that point very firmly to the Prime Minister, and I am very much in favour of retention in this post. On that note, however, I place on record my enormous respect for and thanks to both of my Labour predecessors —the Chancellor and the Security Minister. I particularly want to pay tribute to my right hon. Friend the Member for Barnsley North (Dan Jarvis), who did an outstanding job during his time in this office, doing some considerable heavy lifting to get the defence investment plan over the line. Not only do I thank him for it, but I think the country will thank him for it in the longer term, too. I am enjoying working with him in his post.

The right hon. Gentleman mentioned support for Ukraine, particularly the support we have given for a number of years on training. I should reflect back to the House, from my visit to Kyiv, that what is fascinating about the evolution of this terrible war is that, whereas we have spent a considerable amount of time training Ukrainians, we are increasingly finding that it is the other way around. We are seeing the rapid evolution of modern warfare, and the Ukrainians are at the forefront of defence innovation. We are actively learning from our Ukrainian friends, and their ingenuity and expertise. Yes, we have to provide them with the resources they need to fight and to win, but it is also important that we recognise their extraordinary capability under the most unimaginably difficult circumstances.

The right hon. Gentleman asked about the multinational force for Ukraine. We hope for the best and plan for the worst in terms of the continuation of this war, but we are also actively working to prepare for conditions in which a ceasefire has been agreed by Ukraine, with Ukraine and, from our perspective, for Ukraine. I am proud of the work we are doing, particularly with our French allies, on the multinational force for Ukraine. I enjoyed seeing the MNFU in Paris during a visit to meet my French counterpart, Madame Vautrin, earlier this summer, and I am looking forward to hosting the MNFU here in the UK later this year. The objective of the MNFU is, in the event that a ceasefire is achieved, to increase Ukraine’s deterrence against war breaking out again, and that is the focus of the mission.

The right hon. Gentleman referred to reports in the media about training, and I just want to unpack a few points. First, we are investing more in training, and it is certainly not true to say that training has ceased. [Interruption.] To be fair to the right hon. Gentleman, he did not make that claim, but I have seen people draw that conclusion from some of the reports. Of course training continues, although there has been some reprioritisation to make sure we are prioritising the activities that will provide most impact at this point in time.

I acknowledge, however, that one of our responsibilities as a Department is to live within our means. One discipline I have to bring to the Ministry of Defence, drawing on my experience at the Department of Health and Social Care and the NHS, is to ensure there is no culture of routine overspending, that we are improving productivity, that we deliver value for money and that we recognise that the money we are investing in defence comes with choices and trade-offs that apply across Government and ultimately rest with the taxpayer. Yes, we must make the case for more defence investment and spending, and we will—we will see that across the House—but we should not in the process distract from ensuring that we live within our means, that we deliver capability, effect and impact, and that we treat every penny of taxpayers’ money wisely. [Interruption.] I hear from the Opposition Front Benchers that they agree with that point.

Finally, the right hon. Gentleman tempted me to announce the date at which we will hit 3% spending. He will know that getting ahead of a Chancellor and a spending review is a breach of the ministerial code, and having resigned from the Government once already, I have no intention of doing so again today.

[Alex Baker (Aldershot) (Lab)]

It was great to welcome my right hon. Friend to the Farnborough airshow, and it is great to have him at the Dispatch Box today. Our adversaries in China and Russia are mobilising their financial markets to sustain military aggression. We have seen the industrial ramp-up that has been needed for Ukraine to fight. The Prime Minister confirmed to me last week that the Government are looking at the multilateral Defence, Security and Resilience Bank, which our allies have brought together to mobilise the finance to rearm. The Secretary of State and I have talked about this a lot previously, but does he agree that we need to build the financial resilience to deter, and taking the opportunity to join the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank would send a powerful signal to our adversaries that we have the financial firepower to outbuild and outlast them?

[Wes Streeting]

I find myself having rapidly gone from asking questions about the DSRB to now answering questions about the DSRB, so my hon. Friend will know I have been tracking developments on this Canadian-led initiative very closely. I can certainly see the enormous benefits of the DSRB and Prime Minister Carney’s objectives. We are tracking that progress, talking to our Canadian allies and considering how that could work alongside the multilateral defence mechanism, an initiative led by our former Chancellor, my right hon. Friend the Member for Leeds West and Pudsey (Rachel Reeves). As those discussions continue, I will keep the House informed.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

[James MacCleary (Lewes) (LD)]

I, too, welcome the new Secretary of State to his role, and I thank him for advance sight of his statement. I say to him that the Liberal Democrats continue to stand ready to work constructively with the Government in the interests of our national security. Indeed, Ukraine is a great example of where we have common ground. He is of course quite right to say that Ukraine’s security is our security.

As another winter approaches, Russia will once again seek to weaponise the freezing cold weather to attack Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and harm the civilian population, so the additional £100 million for air defence interceptors is a really welcome move. What discussions is the Secretary of State holding with NATO allies to secure more air defence systems and interceptors for Ukraine before the winter sets in, and is the UK prepared to provide further assistance should such a request be made?

We welcome the Government’s recognition of the need to increase defence investment. However, the defence investment plan is still not fully funded, and given the threats we face, progress on the Government’s commitment to raise defence spending to 3% of GDP remains slow. In response to our supplying technology for deep strike capability, Russia has stated that UK military installations and equipment, both inside Ukraine and beyond its borders, are now considered legitimate targets, and that only adds to the urgent need for investment in our national defence. That is why the Liberal Democrats propose issuing defence bonds, with a plan to raise £20 billion over two years to meet the urgency of the situation head-on. Will the Secretary of State urge the Chancellor to consider defence bonds, and could he perhaps share his own view with the House on this idea?

Finally, we must do more to cut off the funding that fuels Putin’s war machine. Supported by western-linked shipping, insurance and financial services, Russian fossil fuels continue to flow into global markets. Will the Secretary of State push within the Government for tougher action to crack down on activities facilitating Russian fossil fuel exports and work with allies to impose a comprehensive ban on supporting Russian oil, gas and coal? Ukraine is fighting for its survival and for the security of our entire continent, and the UK must continue to stand with it.

[Wes Streeting]

I thank the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for his constructive support and scrutiny. Through our work with my German counterpart Boris Pistorius and our coalition, we are regularly mobilising more support for Ukraine, through both direct contributions and active defence diplomacy. I am particularly grateful to my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary for the support of his Department in those efforts.

Every country involved in supporting Ukraine faces the same choices and trade-offs that we are debating here at home. We approach those conversations in that spirit, but we also ask people to think about the consequences were Putin to prevail and take that as an incentive to further threaten Russia’s neighbours and our NATO allies. That is why I make the case that supporting Ukraine is the right thing to do morally, but that it is also the right thing to do in our national interest and in the interests of the collective security of our continent.

The hon. Gentleman refers to the defence investment plan and raises the issue of defence spending. I want to be clear about two things. We are already delivering the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the cold war. That is a significant improvement on the previous position. He mentions the DIP not being fully funded. It is absolutely true to say that the negotiations on the DIP reached a position where there is a shortfall just shy of £5 billion which we need to deal with in the immediate term. The House should take reassurance from the instincts of the Chancellor and the Government, and from the fact that without any need whatsoever for persuasion from me or my Department, the Chancellor has already confirmed that he will close that gap at the Budget. I am reassured by that. It gives me even greater confidence as the Chancellor looks ahead to the spending review, but that does not mean that we, as a Department and as a Defence team, should be complacent about the need to make the strongest possible case, recognising the trade-offs across Government. We will continue to approach the spending review process in that spirit.

The hon. Gentleman raises defence financing. It is true to say that defence bonds are borrowing. None the less, we continue to work closely with our colleagues at the Treasury and our industry partners to look at what more we can do to leverage finance for defence and to do so in a way that creates jobs, skills, opportunities and reindustrialisation here in Britain.

[Mr Paul Foster (South Ribble) (Lab)]

Will the Secretary of State please outline what assessment the Government have made of recent statements from Moscow regarding the United Kingdom?

[Wes Streeting]

There is a distinction to be drawn between what the Kremlin says and what it does: the performative displays we have seen from Russia in recent months—I think particularly about some of its actions in the channel—and the actual threats we deal with, deter and repel on a daily basis. The British people should be in no doubt about the threat and intent of Russia, but they should also draw confidence from our capability. We have been debating actively in this House, and we ought to debate it more widely as a country, how we maintain our ability to deter and how we build our capability to respond to evolving threats, given the way in which modern warfare is changing, as we are seeing in Europe. The overall posture of the country ought to be to be alert to the Russian threat, but certainly not alarmed. I am proud of the capability we have, even as we seek to fund and build more.

[Dr Andrew Murrison (South West Wiltshire) (Con)]

It is good to hear that the Government plan to replenish the dwindling stocks of Patriot missiles in Ukraine, which I suspect it will need this winter. However, Patriot is low volume and high cost. What the Ukrainians need is high volume and low cost. What assessment has the Secretary of State made of the Fire Point consortium’s Freya missile system, which stands every chance of providing the solution to that conundrum not just for Ukraine, but for the UK and its allies in NATO as we try to face down the threat from Russia?

[Wes Streeting]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his question, and I put on record my respect for the expertise and experience he brings to debates on defence in this House. He is absolutely right about what the objective needs to be: lower cost, higher impact. We are actively working to drive innovation in this space, particularly through initiatives such as Project Brakestop. We are tracking our allies, who are also actively seeking to push the frontier of defence innovation in this space. I will, of course, keep the House updated as those initiatives progress.

[Johanna Baxter (Paisley and Renfrewshire South) (Lab)]

I welcome my right hon. Friend to his place. I am very pleased that he has now seen for himself, as I have, the reality of Russia’s illegal war on the ground in Ukraine. I know he will share my concerns about the deeply troubling reports in The Daily Telegraph yesterday that SAS veterans are training Russians to fight Ukraine. It states:

“An assessment compiled for Five Eyes intelligence agencies found, with ‘strong confidence’, that Western military veterans had been recruited to train Russian citizens as well as ‘active duty military’ personnel.”

Will he investigate, as a matter of urgency, those reports and report back to the House?

[Wes Streeting]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising that very serious and important issue. She will understand that, as a matter of policy, I will not comment on intelligence, but I will address the reports she has raised.

One of the great privileges of being in this post in the last seven weeks has been meeting the people in our special forces and seeing the capability that they have. It is truly remarkable and my only regret is that we are not able to show, for obvious reasons, the country more publicly just how exceptional these people and their capabilities are. It is in that spirit that I find it utterly unthinkable and shameful that anyone who has served this country, in whatever capacity, would think it in any way acceptable to support the Russian state as it wages war in Ukraine. The Ukrainians’ fight is our fight. Their frontline is the frontline for freedom and democracy. Those actions are an affront not only to this country and our values, but to the values that underpin the uniform that those who serve in our armed forces wear. I know I speak for the entire armed forces community in saying that.

Let me reassure the House and send a very clear message that we have robust legislation in place to tackle foreign hostile activity. The National Security Act 2023 gives our intelligence agencies and the police the tools they need to detect and disrupt threats, but the Act specifies under its interpretations that

“‘information’ includes information about tactics, techniques and procedures”.

It is applicable to any individual and extends beyond the period in which personnel are employed by the UK armed forces. Let that be a warning to anyone who has supported, or considers supporting, the Russians as they wage war in Ukraine.

[Sir Julian Lewis (New Forest East) (Con)]

I warmly endorse almost everything the Secretary of State has said today, and I genuinely congratulate him on his appointment. In my first speech in this House almost 30 years ago, I promised to support Labour Governments as long as they supported the nuclear deterrent, the conventional armed forces and NATO. I would like to think that I have kept that promise.

The one area where I have to dissent, however, is the section where he comes on to the proportion of GDP spent on defence. As I have said to some of the right hon. Gentleman’s predecessors, it is no good banging on about something being the largest increase since the end of the cold war. We are now in a situation that is worse than that at the height of the cold war, so the comparison we have to make is between what we are spending now and what we spent during the cold war, which was, in modern calculating methods, between 4.5% and 5.1% on defence. So let us not talk about increases to 2.7%. We really must remember that even when the Berlin wall came down, we were spending over 4% of GDP on defence at that stage. Those are the sorts of efforts that we have to make, because if Putin fails in Ukraine, the threat to this country will recede for a generation.

[Wes Streeting]

I give the right hon. Gentleman an undertaking on those three things to make it as easy as possible for him to support this Government: supporting the nuclear deterrent, building capacity in our armed forces and supporting NATO are things I believe in very strongly. In the spirit on these exchanges, I will take at face value the point he makes about the comparison with the cold war and resist the temptation to discuss the starting point we were faced with on defence spending and the condition of our armed forces when this Government arrived.

The right hon. Gentleman is right to draw historical comparisons and provoke all of us to think more widely about the context we are operating in domestically, across Europe and internationally. I have not heard a suggestion from the official Opposition that the Government should be making a 4% or 5% commitment, nor any proposals to that effect, but let this discussion help the public understand why, at a time of constrained resources for households, businesses and Government, we are making an active political choice to invest more in our defence. I respectfully say, as someone who has been responsible for hospitals and the NHS, that schools, hospitals and homes are important things, but they are valueless if reduced to rubble. That is the experience of the Ukrainians; that is the kind of threat that we are operating under; and that is why we must commit, and continue to commit, to increasing defence spending.

[David Taylor (Hemel Hempstead) (Lab)]

I warmly congratulate the Defence Secretary on his appointment. I want to make him aware of a range of fantastic organisations and charities around the country that regularly send convoys from the UK to Ukraine, giving not just humanitarian aid but some military equipment, including pick-up trucks repurposed for soldiers to use. I have had the honour of going out on and driving one of those vehicles. Unfortunately, there are a number of issues that could be solved to make those journeys smoother, from making it easier for public bodies in the UK, such as hospitals, to get rid of old vehicles that are coming to the end of their life and place them in the hands of those organisations, to issues, frankly, on the Polish side of the border, where the approach is less than consistent—sometimes the convoys can be held up for hours unnecessarily. Would it be possible for an MOD official to meet me and some of those organisations to thrash out some of the issues and help increase the impact of their brilliant work?

[Wes Streeting]

I thank my hon. Friend for all the work he does in this space and the considerable experience and expertise he brings to debates on these issues. I am proud of the fact that, in addition to the support we provide as a Government and the £577 million in humanitarian assistance, the British people have gone above and beyond, digging deep through financial contributions and gifts in kind to actively support our friends in Ukraine, as well as welcoming Ukrainian families into their homes. That is why, when the Prime Minister and I were in Kyiv, we were able to say with confidence and credibility that our support was on behalf of not just the Government but people up and down our country. I am up for supporting the initiatives described by my hon. Friend and would be happy to facilitate the meeting he asked for.

[Christine Jardine (Edinburgh West) (LD)]

I welcome everything that the Defence Secretary has said. I was particularly taken by what he said about learning from Ukraine. It is not just about learning how warfare has developed; we also have to learn from Ukrainian society. I organised an event here with a Ukrainian organisation called Still We Love, and I am holding another in Edinburgh next month. That organisation is made up of the loved ones and partners of those who are at the front—people who have been left at home and are trying to build resilience in society. Does the Defence Secretary agree that we have to look at building our social resilience as well as our defences? We need to ensure that our fire service, police service and NHS are ready in case of Russian aggression.

[Wes Streeting]

I strongly agree with the hon. Member and thank her for her support. Under the Labour Government, we have had a resilience committee within the National Security Council to plug other Government Departments into the conversation about national defence and resilience. That is something that I benefited from as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, as I was able to respond to that and plan. We need a wider national conversation. The Government are very happy to lead that, and we will, but it needs to involve everyone: Government, business, civil society and all of us as citizens. That is not just in the context of the warfare and security threats the country faces; as I reflected recently, it is in the context of wildfires, flooding and a wide range of disruptions the country could face. We are not as prepared as we ought to be, and as a result we need to work collectively to improve our national resilience, because it is everyone’s responsibility and duty as a citizen.

[Fleur Anderson (Putney) (Lab)]

I was shocked to hear evidence from Amnesty International of Russia’s criminal trafficking of people from around the world. They are promised a job, but their passport is taken away, and they are given a gun and sent off to the frontline to fight. That is the enemy that we are talking about. I am proud to hear all the things that the Defence Secretary has talked about, especially the Patriot missiles; I know from talking to Ukrainian parliamentarians and politicians that those are what they have been asking for. With another winter coming, can the Defence Secretary outline how UK support matches what Ukraine needs to win this war?

[Wes Streeting]

My hon. Friend nails the character of the regime we face. Through our leadership of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, we are mobilising support for Ukraine and ensuring that the support we provide matches what the Ukrainians need. I engage closely with my Ukrainian counterpart, Minister Khmara, and will continue to do so.

[Alicia Kearns (Rutland and Stamford) (Con)]

I welcome the Defence Secretary to his place. Romanian, Polish and Latvian airspace have all been violated by the Putin regime in the last year, and Russian drones are regularly shot down over NATO territory, yet the threshold for a NATO response is far too high. That only encourages Russia’s recklessness and probing of us, and it means that the risk of miscalculation by Russia, or of an attack on us, becomes much higher. Will the Defence Secretary commit to working with us to increase the number of article 4 referrals put forward, so that we crack down on this? If we do not pay any attention to those violations or dismiss them, we only increase the risk and the consequences to us, and we do not deter future threats.

[Wes Streeting]

I welcome the hon. Member’s support and value her expertise in these matters. She is right to flag the issue of miscalculation; the need to avoid that risk gives us all the more reason to have a number of lines into Moscow. She is also right to challenge all of us across the NATO alliance to think about how we provide the right level of deterrence. I will reflect on what she has said.

[Tim Roca (Macclesfield) (Lab)]

I welcome the Defence Secretary to his place, his absolute commitment to our national security, and the mature tone of his statement, in which he talked about working cross-party on what is in our national interest. We have seen the critical importance of integrated missile and air defence, as evidenced by the war in Ukraine, and the need for low-cost options that tackle everything from cheap Shahed-style drones through to ballistic missiles. We have also seen that we need not only the asset, but the ability to replenish stocks rapidly. Many countries in Europe—Spain, Germany, France and so on—have Patriot or SAMP/T systems, but the UK lacks a ground-based missile interceptor. What progress have the Government made on procuring the right range of air defences for our national defence, and on building our industrial capacity?

[Wes Streeting]

I thank my hon. Friend for his support and the work that he does, particularly with NATO. I reassure him that through the defence investment plan, we are investing £790 million in new homeland integrated air and missile defence, and are building on our broader air defence investments, including through directed energy weapons, Sea Viper upgrades and a new integrated air, space and missile defence operations centre. He is right to bring scrutiny to that issue, and it is right that the House maintains its focus on improving our air defences, not least given what we see in Ukraine.

[Sir John Whittingdale (Maldon) (Con)]

I strongly welcome the Secretary of State’s confirmation of our continuing support for Ukraine. He has set out the sustained threat from Russia facing not just Ukraine, but this country and the whole of Europe, yet for too many people, it is still business as usual. First, will he consider a public awareness campaign to raise awareness of the threat, like those in Finland and the Baltic states? Secondly, what message does he have for the companies that continue to trade in Russia and, in doing so, both undermine sanctions and provide funds for Russia’s war machine?

[Wes Streeting]

I will have to think of some parliamentary words, in response to the second part of the right hon. Gentleman’s question. It is an extremely serious issue, and I think the companies concerned, and those with executive decision-making responsibility, ought to think about the risk involved to this country and this continent, and to the values that we are trying to uphold by supporting our friends in Ukraine. Let me reassure him that the national conversation that we need to have is very high on my list of priorities, because we do need to raise awareness—but not alarm—in both a conventional defence and security content and a wider national resilience context. I will report back to the House on plans for a national conversation.

[John Slinger (Rugby) (Lab)]

Ukrainians living in my constituency of Rugby contacted me ahead of this statement to inform me of the devastating attacks in the Sumy region overnight, including on a shopping centre and on trains. I asked one of them what they thought was missing from the debate here, and, if you will allow me, Madam Deputy Speaker, I would like to read out what they said:

“The constant psychological pressure. When you live inside it, everything feels incredibly urgent. If drones are flying towards your city, every minute matters and then you look at the outside world, where decisions naturally take weeks or months, and it can feel painfully slow and very far away. Sometimes you feel almost alone in it.

There is also the information war. After years of this, people are exhausted, and of course there is anger. Why was this not stopped? Why is there not more protection? Russia tries to use exactly that exhaustion, fear and frustration to deepen mistrust. At the same time, it pushes another message outside Ukraine: that Ukrainians are tired of fighting, that Ukraine cannot win, and that continued support is pointless. But that is not what I hear from the people I know. They are exhausted, yes. They are frightened and angry. But they do not want to surrender. They want the opposite—the chance to live their normal lives again without Russia deciding whether they can sleep, travel, work, keep warm or see their family.”

Will my right hon. Friend just reiterate once again that this House is united with Ukraine, and will help it militarily, diplomatically, economically and in the psychological battle?

[Wes Streeting]

I am really grateful to my hon. Friend for that powerful contribution; I am glad that he shared it with us, and that those first-hand words from Ukraine are on the record. I want to reassure him on two points. First, we recognise the challenge on pace, and I am determined to keep up momentum through the UDCG, which will meet again in November. Secondly, I pay tribute to the Ukrainian people and the leadership of Ukraine—President Zelensky and his team—who operate in the most extraordinarily difficult circumstances. The Ukrainian people can be proud of his leadership, and they can be proud of their resilience, too.

[Mr Lee Dillon (Newbury) (LD)]

I want to welcome the Secretary of State to his place, and to say how pleased I am that the hon. Member for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport (Luke Pollard) remains a member of the Defence team. On 19 March last year, I asked the former Prime Minister about seizing Russian assets. There is reportedly £185 billion-worth of Russian assets in Europe, £30 billion of it in the UK. The Prime Minister responded,

“it is complicated—it is not straightforward—but we are working with others to see what is possible.”—[Official Report, 19 March 2025; Vol. 764, c. 347.]

Will the new Administration now act, as they have done on Gaza, which the Government previously said was too complicated? [Interruption.]

[Wes Streeting]

As my hon. Friend the Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry—whom the hon. Gentleman praised—has just remarked, it is difficult and it is complicated, but I take up the challenge. We want to do everything we can in this space. The hon. Gentleman is right to keep pressing us on this, and to keep it in our line of sight. We will continue to do as much as we can, as fast as we can.

[David Smith (North Northumberland) (Lab)]

I warmly welcome my right hon. Friend to his place, and thank him for characterising this conflict as one between freedom and tyranny. I was very privileged to go to Kyiv in July in my role as UK special envoy for freedom of religion or belief, and while I was there, I heard from our Ukrainian partners how the Putin regime is weaponising the Russian Orthodox Church, particularly in the occupied territories; no one there has freedom of religion or belief, unless they are in the Russian Orthodox Church. That includes other Christians and the Tatars in Crimea. Does my right hon. Friend agree that a key dividing line in this conflict is freedom of religion or belief and wider human rights—the line between a free, open Ukrainian democracy, and an increasingly authoritarian Russia?

[Wes Streeting]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question and wholeheartedly agree with him. I would just make the point that the weaponisation of Christianity is not something we see only in Russia; we see it here in Britain, too. If people are going to wear the cross, they should at least bother to read the Gospels before preaching a message contrary to them.

[Blake Stephenson (Mid Bedfordshire) (Con)]

I thank the Secretary of State for his statement and welcome him to his place. I also welcome the ongoing commitment to defend Ukraine. In his statement, he reaffirmed the UK’s commitment to providing more than 120,000 drones to Ukraine this year, which I very much welcome. He also mentioned the recent plot to sabotage a UK drone factory. What action is being taken to ensure that UK manufacturing facilities are safe and secure, and if any action is required, who is funding that?

[Wes Streeting]

I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman’s support on Ukraine. He is right to raise this issue. He will understand that I am not going to comment on operational details. Suffice it to say that we take threats to this country and our assets seriously, and we work closely across society to ensure that people are prepared for any challenges they may encounter.

[Mohammad Yasin (Bedford) (Lab)]

If Russia succeeds in weaponising the freezing winter by destroying civilian power grids, the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe will face a vastly superior threat. Will the Defence Secretary confirm that helping Ukraine stop these attacks is not only the right thing to do for our Ukrainian allies, but a strategic necessity to directly safeguard the long-term security interests of the British people?

[Wes Streeting]

I wholeheartedly agree with my hon. Friend. It is important that we continue to make the case that supporting Ukraine is not only the right thing to do morally, but an act of national self-interest, in the interests of national security in Britain.

[Clive Jones (Wokingham) (LD)]

I welcome the Secretary of State to his new position. The Wokingham area is a home to many Ukrainians who are concerned that international support for their fight against the Russian invasion is weakening. Like me, they will welcome his assurances that this Government will continue supporting Ukraine against Russian expansion, and the same strong commitment from the Prime Minister. Can the Secretary of State confirm that this support will continue even if the USA, under President Trump, backs away even more from supporting Ukraine?

--- Later in debate ---

[Wes Streeting]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. I have to say, it is my experience that international support for Ukraine is galvanising and remains extremely strong and resilient, and I have seen no sign of that commitment weakening. In fact, only this week, we have seen significant commitments made, right across Europe and beyond, to supporting our friends in Ukraine. I have to say, I found the United States actively engaged on this issue, too, in our bilateral conversations. The diplomatic track on which the Americans are driving is also important; we should not understate the engagement and commitment we see from our friends in Washington.

[James Naish (Rushcliffe) (Lab)]

The Secretary of State knows how drone technology has transformed activities in Ukraine, and he will appreciate the importance of innovative companies like Skycutter to my regional economy in the east midlands. After winning a major contract with the US Government, Skycutter has been encouraged to move there, but I would like to see it investing here in the UK. Could the Secretary of State confirm the specific measures that he will take to ensure that UK-based drone companies stay and manufacture here in our country?

[Wes Streeting]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for once again raising this issue with me. It is now on the record, but his constituents should know that he has been actively campaigning around the corridors of this place too. The Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry, my hon. Friend the Member for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport (Luke Pollard), will be very pleased to meet him to discuss his constituency issue.

I say to the whole House that there is a big opportunity through defence investment to reindustrialise this country and create jobs, growth and opportunities. Members will see the commitment of this Government, Prime Minister, Chancellor and Defence Secretary reflected not just in words, but in deeds in the coming weeks and months.

[Richard Tice (Boston and Skegness) (Reform)]

I welcome the Secretary of State to his place; I knew it would not be long before we saw him back on the Front Bench. I have urged the Government before to use the frozen Russian Central Bank assets. It may be difficult, as he has just said to another hon. Member, but that does not mean it is impossible. Given the leadership that the United Kingdom has shown, can I urge the Secretary of State to lead the way in turning the difficult into the possible?

[Mr Francois]

Speaking of foreign donations.

[Wes Streeting]

To retain the tone of these exchanges, I will resist making the point that the shadow Minister makes. Let me say simply to the hon. Gentleman that that is absolutely the challenge I will take up.

[Mr Alex Barros-Curtis (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

I welcome my right hon. Friend to his place and thank him for his statement. The New York Times published an article today saying that Ukraine has a defence budget shortfall of around £20 billion. He will know that more than £145 billion of frozen Russian assets are currently held in the Euroclear system in Belgium. Will he work with European partners and press Belgium to release that funding so that we can fill those shortfalls and secure Ukrainian and European defence?

--- Later in debate ---

[Wes Streeting]

My hon. Friend is right to link those two issues, which we have heard about from Members across the House. I can assure him that, particularly through the UDCG, and through our bilateral conversations, we will continue to do whatever we can to liberate frozen Russian assets and put them in Ukrainian hands to fight for Ukrainian freedom.

[Tom Gordon (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (LD)]

I welcome the Secretary of State to his place and support the statement he has made. I would like to press him a bit further on the point from my hon. Friend the Member for Lewes (James MacCleary) about turning off the taps on the Russian war machine when it comes to funding. Earlier in this Parliament, I raised the issue of cultural exports such as the likes of “Masha and the Bear” and how that was directly contributing to the Russian war machine. Ukraine has now sanctioned “Masha and the Bear”, but it is still on ITVX and Netflix in the UK. Will he work with Cabinet colleagues to look at how we can tackle the ways in which Russia finances its war?

[Wes Streeting]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising that example. I know that my colleagues across Cabinet are willing for people to do more through their Departments to support Ukraine. I will certainly pick that issue up.

[Tom Rutland (East Worthing and Shoreham) (Lab)]

I thank my right hon. Friend for his statement. We know that Putin will be preparing to use winter as a weapon by continuing barbaric attacks against civilian and energy targets in Ukraine. Will the Secretary of State outline the steps that this Government are taking to mobilise allies and provide more support wherever we can?

[Wes Streeting]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that question, and I am proud of the role that the UK is showing through the UDCG. With our friends and allies, we will continue to mobilise international support in that way to raise the resources and capability that Ukraine needs to win its freedom.

[Richard Foord (Honiton and Sidmouth) (LD)]

I agree with the Secretary of State that differences on defence should not be manufactured for party political advantage, and it is sad to see that happen elsewhere in Europe. The EU still gets 12% of its gas imports from Russia. While this is down from 45%—the level before the full-scale invasion—the proceeds are still fuelling the Russian war machine. What is the Secretary of State doing to maintain unity across Europe, as well as across the House? Will he encourage our friends in the European Union to cease all Russian gas imports?

[Wes Streeting]

I certainly welcome the support we have seen from member states of the European Union through the UDCG. I also pay tribute to the European Union’s work to mobilise support and financing for Ukraine, including some considerable announcements made only recently. The hon. Gentleman is right to raise the issue of Russian imports. These are the sorts of conversations that we have with our friends and allies.

[Chris Kane (Stirling and Strathallan) (Lab)]

The threat from Russia is clearly changing the way that we think about the defence of our country. In my constituency, the Civil Defence Social Club still exists, but civil defence itself does not. What discussions is the Defence Secretary having with Cabinet colleagues and, crucially, the devolved nations, including the Scottish Government, about what modern civil defence should look like? As is demonstrated by many countries, the closer a country is to the Russian border, the more military and civil society converge in a system of mutual deterrence and, if ever required, national defence. What more should Britain learn from that whole-of-society approach?

[Wes Streeting]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise this issue and the importance of learning from those who lead by example. We do need to raise our game in this respect. We absolutely will, and we are drawing on our international counterparts as we prepare for our own national conversation. We are also thinking through the capability that we need in terms of national resilience. I am very happy to involve him in those conversations and to underscore the importance of the UK Government—this is our responsibility—working closely with the devolved Governments as well. I want to have a constructive relationship in this post with the Scottish and Welsh Governments and the Northern Ireland Executive.

[Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)]

I welcome the Defence Secretary to his place. This morning, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe proposed a mechanism that could allow Ukraine to receive frozen Russian assets based on rulings by the European Court of Human Rights. The document states that directing Russian assets towards compensating Ukraine could be a legitimate countermeasure and is consistent with the norms of international law. Will the Secretary of State consider this mechanism in relation to the UK’s seized Russian assets as well as in discussions with European allies?

[Wes Streeting]

I can give my hon. Friend the assurance that we will look very carefully at this development. I am keen to do all we can to liberate Russian assets to invest in Ukraine’s defence. I am grateful to him for invoking the ECHR in a positive context, which is not always a feature of debates in this House.

[Peter Swallow (Bracknell) (Lab)]

Through their Representation of the People Bill, this Government are already doing a lot to protect our democracy from dodgy foreign donations, but my right hon. Friend knows that I am also concerned about foreign misinformation and disinformation undermining our democracy, support for Ukraine and community cohesion. What conversations is he having with Cabinet colleagues about what more we can do to target foreign misinformation and disinformation, particularly from Russia, and to protect our democracy?

[Wes Streeting]

My hon. Friend is right to raise this issue. As well as land, air, sea and cyber, we should absolutely see information and communication as a front in modern warfare and a risk to our own national security. We actively rebut misinformation and disinformation from Russia as well as from other states and non-state actors that pose a threat to our democracy and way of life. There is more to do on this, and it certainly needs to form part of the national conversation, because we can each play a part, particularly when trust in politics and mainstream media is low. In the context of the threats we face, we need to completely change the dial on the public’s level of trust and confidence in us.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)]

For the final question, I call Chris Vince.

[Chris Vince (Harlow) (Lab/Co-op)]

I welcome the new Defence Secretary to his place and thank him for his statement, particularly his ongoing commitment to support our Ukrainian allies. Going last is very difficult, particularly when my hon. Friend the Member for Bracknell (Peter Swallow) has asked exactly the question that I was going to, so I am desperately trying to think of something else to ask. I absolutely echo what my hon. Friend the Member for Bracknell about disinformation online, normally from Russian sources. Whether it is extreme right-wing views or extreme left-wing views, this AI-generated nonsense is designed to disrupt and undermine our democracy. As this is the last question, can I ask the Secretary of State to reflect on that and to once again give this Labour Government’s commitment to support our Ukrainian allies?

[Wes Streeting]

My hon. Friend should know by now that repetition is not a crime in the House of Commons; it is a regular feature of our exchanges. I very much look forward to working with him in this capacity—he managed to leverage an enormous amount of money out of me when I was Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. I look forward to those high-security containment labs being up and running in his Harlow constituency before too long. I also give to him the commitment not only to support Ukraine and press on investing more in our national defence and security, but to ensure that the good people of Harlow benefit from the jobs that defence provides in his constituency, not least through Raytheon.

Defence Investment Plan

Wes Streeting Excerpts

Tuesday 30th June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Dan Jarvis]

The right hon. Gentleman knows that I always listen very carefully to what he has to say, not least because he talks a lot of good sense on these matters. Over the many years of him being sat on the Government Benches and me sat on the Opposition Benches, I remember listening to the case he made for investment in defence, including investment in nuclear. I know, therefore, that he will welcome the £63 billion over the next four years to strengthen the UK’s nuclear deterrent. He has spoken with great consistency on these matters over many, many years.

The right hon. Gentleman is right to say that there is still work to do to point the trajectory to 3.5%. I think today is a very significant step forward in terms of providing additional resource and additional capability. The £298 billion is a very significant commitment by this Government. When we came into office two years ago, the percentage of GDP was at 2.3%. We have increased that. We are on a trajectory to increase it over the next few years, and we must ensure that, through the next spending review process, we have the resource that I think most right hon. and hon. Members agree we now need to chart that course to 3.5%. That is an absolute commitment that we will honour, and we will work closely with our NATO allies in order to do so.

[Wes Streeting (Ilford North) (Lab)]

Of course, this Government would not have such an uphill mountain to climb were it not for the decisions taken by our predecessors. I really think the Conservatives would have more credibility if they acknowledged that fact more readily and with more humility than they have shown today, and on every previous occasion the shadow Secretary of State has been at the Dispatch Box. None the less, as the Secretary of State himself has acknowledged, we need to go further and faster. What we have here is a good foundation to build on, but there is more to do. With that in mind, will the Secretary of State set out the Government’s rationale for not joining the defence security and resilience bank, and will he reconsider?

[Dan Jarvis]

We will look carefully at the best possible mechanism to ensure that we have the resources to field the required capability. There are different views about how best to do that, and different allies advocate different ways of investing money in our defence industries. My right hon. Friend will understand that I have not had a huge amount of time, in the couple of weeks that I have been drawing the plan together, to map out the longer-term spending proposals on how we best generate that activity across defence and with our economy. I am not ruling anything out or in, but I will look closely at what our allies say and take advice. I am happy to discuss it further with my right hon. Friend.

Defence Readiness

Wes Streeting Excerpts

Wednesday 20th May 2026 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting (Ilford North) (Lab)]

I begin by joining others in expressing my condolences to the family of Lance Bombardier Ciara Sullivan. It is a pleasure to follow my parliamentary neighbour, the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith), despite our best efforts to retire him at the last general election.

The test of any of us in politics is: did we leave things in a better place than we found them? Thanks to the choices made by this Labour Government, the NHS is on the road to recovery. Waiting lists fell by 110,000 in March—the biggest fall in a single month outside of the pandemic for 17 years. Ambulance response times for heart attacks and strokes are now the fastest in five years, patient satisfaction with access to general practice has gone from 60% to 75%, and at a time when public trust in politicians is low, we hit our target of recruiting 8,500 more mental health workers three years early.

On social care, I am proud that we are investing an extra £4 billion; that we have delivered the biggest expansion of carer’s allowance since the 1970s; that the extra £150 million in the disabled facilities grant is providing more dignity, freedom and independence to thousands more disabled people; and that the first ever fair pay agreements will be delivered in social care, because the people who care for our loved ones should never care for their own. That was all made possible thanks to the efforts of the entire NHS and social care team.

In the four and half years that I have led for Labour on health and social care, I have met the best of them: the ones who ran towards danger in Southport and fought to save those children; the ones who scrubbed up and went to work during the pandemic, while the rest of us retreated to safety; the ones who bring new life into the world; and the ones who hold our hands at the end. Leading that team has been the greatest joy of my life.

The depth of love and gratitude I have for the people I have worked with is beyond words—the brilliant team of Ministers and officials at the Department of Health and Social Care, particularly my private office, NHS England, the best team of special advisers in Government, and the leaders and frontline staff across this remarkable system. I am rooting for all of them, as well as for my successor as Health Secretary as he takes on the best job in Government.

I will not pretend that leaving Government has not been an emotional wrench. The scars that I bear on my abdomen from my cancer treatment are a daily reminder to me of a time in my life, not so long ago, when I was thinking not about politics, but only about survival—and the NHS was there for me when I needed it. Walking through the doors of my Department every day as the person entrusted with protecting the very service that saved my life has been a massive responsibility and the most enormous privilege, and not one that I gave up lightly or hastily.

I left the Government because we are in the fight of our lives against nationalism, and it is a fight that we are currently losing. Unless we change course, we risk handing the keys of No. 10 to Reform, and I do not want that on our consciences. For the first time in our history, nationalists are in power in every corner of the United Kingdom. Scottish and Welsh nationalism represents an existential threat to the future integrity of the United Kingdom. Reform UK represents a threat to the values and ideals that have made this country great—values and ideals that are written into the DNA of the national health service that it would dismantle, given the chance, and whose very existence is an act of courage as well as conviction: that healthcare should be provided based on what each of us needs, not on what any of us can afford. It is a reminder that, even in our darkest hours, this country is capable of doing big things. It is our responsibility to defend that promise and the values that it represents, not just for the NHS or even for the survival of this Government, but to win the battles that we thought were long since won: of progressives against reactionaries, of patriots versus nationalists, of hope over hate. That is our fight. It is Andy Burnham’s fight in Makerfield, and it is Labour’s fight for the soul of our country.

For too long and too often, patriotism in Britain has been left to the loudest voices and the narrowest arguments, as though love of country belongs to one tribe, one party or one point of view, but the Britain that I believe in is bigger than that. Patriotism is not about who you exclude; it is about who you stand beside. It is not rooted in fear of change or suspicion of difference; it is rooted in solidarity—in the belief that we rise or fall together. That is the best of our country’s story: a Britain where people from different backgrounds, different faiths, and different nations and regions, still see themselves in one another; a country where the son of Indian pharmacists can become our first Hindu Prime Minister without having his Englishness questioned; a patriotism built not on blood and soil but on shared values, shared institutions and shared responsibilities.

I understand that SNP and Plaid Cymru Members will not see themselves in the English nationalist politics of the party whose Members sit on the Bench behind them. But nationalism is not progressive, and nationalism and patriotism are not the same things. Nationalism says, “Look inward. Protect your own. Turn away from the others.” Patriotism says, “This country is strongest when we are confident enough to be outward looking, generous and united”—united, but not always the same. On the Labour Benches, we believe in a stronger Scotland and a stronger Wales as part of a fairer United Kingdom.

Twenty-eight years ago this week, the people of Northern Ireland took a leap of faith and voted to endorse the Good Friday agreement—the triumph of hope over bitter enmity, and a reminder that a bigger and better politics is possible when people have courage. That is why we must reject the politics that tries to divide us—whether that is dividing the countries of the United Kingdom or the people who call Britain their home. The nurse from Nigeria is not the enemy of the factory worker in Newcastle. The family fleeing war is not responsible for the cost of living crisis. Division is the oldest trick in politics, and Britain deserves better than that.

The future of this country will not be built by setting neighbour against neighbour; it will be built by renewing the bonds between us, with decent jobs, strong public services, safe communities, a place we can call home and a sense that everyone has a stake in Britain’s success. That is the patriotism we need today—not a brittle nationalism built on grievance, but a confident British patriotism: decent, fair-minded and internationalist, bound together in common endeavour with the conviction that our greatest strength has always been one another. We need to mobilise that spirit as we face the gathering storm.

The war in Iran may be over for now, but this fragile peace has not resolved the crisis in the strait of Hormuz. Even if it were resolved tomorrow, the long-tail consequences for the global economy and the British people will be stark. The tragedy for this Government is that my right hon. Friend the Chancellor has been delivering the fastest growing economy in the G7, falling inflation and lower interest rates, but her hard work has been undermined by the consequences of a war we did not choose. I pay tribute to the Prime Minister for keeping us out of it. It will be painful for the British people, who have weathered crisis after crisis: some imposed on us, like the wars in Iran and Ukraine and the pandemic; and others, like austerity, Brexit and Liz Truss’s joyride with the British economy, the result of poor political leadership.

When I gave my maiden speech 11 years ago, I argued that none of the problems facing our country would be solved by leaving the European Union. Today, in the dangerous and volatile world we find ourselves in, dominated by an unpredictable superpower in the USA, a rising superpower in China and a failed superpower in Russia, it is even more clear that we would have been better off leading Europe than leaving the European Union—not despite our sovereignty and the need to control our borders, but to enable those things. That is why I argue for a new special relationship. It is also why I welcome the assurances that the Government are strengthening sanctions on Russia to underline the rock-solid support that we have given President Zelensky and the Ukrainian people. The frontline in Ukraine is the frontline for our freedom and democracy. We are meant to be the party of internationalism and solidarity. It is only too disappointing to see Reform councillors taking down the Ukraine flag when the British people want to fly it in solidarity. It is truly, truly shameful.

NATO’s Secretary-General is right to warn today that our alliance has an “unhealthy” reliance on one ally. We need to invest more heavily in our defence, and more rapidly. I know that my right hon. Friend the Defence Secretary and his team do not need persuading on this—nor do they need lectures from Conservatives, who ran down our capability and now have the audacity to heckle from the sidelines like the arsonist complaining that the fire brigade has not turned up fast enough. I am with the Secretary of State and his team all the way.

[James Cartlidge]

Bankrupting the country has consequences.

[Wes Streeting]

The shadow Secretary of State mentions “bankrupting the country.” I think he is thinking about Liz Truss and the joyride that he was no doubt cheering on. A period of silence, or at least an apology, might be welcome from those on the Conservative Front Bench.

We need to recognise that a nation draws its strength from the condition of its people. A recent survey of 16 to 29-year-olds suggested that around half of all young people in this country would not be prepared to fight for it. I am not so sure about that; I think they would be every bit as brave and self-sacrificing as their grandparents and great-grandparents were, or as their contemporaries holding back the Russians in Ukraine have been. When the cause is just and the need is urgent, they will step up, regardless of what they might have told opinion pollsters.

I know that because, when this country was facing a dire threat—from covid—young people did step up. The generation least at risk gave up the most to help the rest of us keep safe. And how did Britain repay them? By short-changing them on their education, layering on debt, making it harder to get on the housing ladder, and failing to protect them from the AI jobs apocalypse. This generation is the first left totally exposed to the time-sucking algorithms and perils of social media. The Education Secretary and I have raised our concerns about the impact of this on their learning and their wellbeing, but I also wonder what it is doing to their sense of connection with community and country.

But patriotism is not a lecture that the old deliver to the young; it is a relationship. For generations, Britain understood that relationship as a social contract: you work hard, you play by the rules, you contribute to society, and in return you can build a decent life, a secure job, a home of your own and a family if you want one, with the hope and conviction that your children will do better than you did. A generation ago, the average home cost around four times average earnings. In many parts of Britain today, it is eight, 10 or even 12 times average earnings. Private rents consume vast proportions of household income. Millions of young people who work hard and do the right thing cannot see a path to home ownership or security. Today, nearly a million young people are not in education, employment or training. Many are trapped in insecure work, unable to move out, delaying starting their families and postponing adulthood itself.

Layered on top of this economic insecurity is a new technological anxiety. For generations, people believed that there was a ladder of advancement, with an entry-level job, skills acquired over time, promotion, security and progress. Now, many young people fear that artificial intelligence may remove the lower rungs of that ladder altogether. They ask what skills will still matter. Will there still be routes into stable, middle-class lives for kids from working-class families like mine? Will deindustrialisation be replaced with reindustrialisation and the jobs of the future? Will opportunities extend to our towns, rural and coastal communities, or will inequality become entrenched? Those are not irrational fears; they are rooted in real economic change. Unless mainstream democratic politics can answer those questions, others will exploit that vacuum—they already are.

Defence is about hard power and capabilities, but it is underpinned by the soft power that binds a country together: pride, belonging, shared activities and institutions, and hope. We need to rebuild those things for modern times. This is the calling of the Labour party, which was brought into existence to champion the interests of the working man and woman—for the many, not just the privileged few. It gave me—this kid from a council estate in Stepney in east London—the chance to realise my potential, to go to a great university, and to spend my career tackling the injustices that hold back other kids from backgrounds like mine.

The greatest tragedy of Britain today is that the next generation, for the first time in our modern history, faces worse prospects than the last. The question is not whether young people would fight for their country, but when their country is going to fight for them. This is our generational challenge: not only to deal with the immediate issues of affordability, small boats and NHS waiting lists, but to face up to a turbulent world being remade by climate change and the biggest and fastest industrial revolution in the history of the world; to make sure that no one is left behind and no one is held back—that is our job now, as the old economy of the 20th century finally gives way to the AI revolution of the 21st; and to tackle the crisis facing the next generation as an emergency, with the urgency that the moment requires.

Never waste a minute: that has been my mantra in government, and it is why I do not believe our party has time to waste treading water. The thing about emergencies is that they make the impossible possible. Look back at the crises we have confronted: we could not vaccinate against the deadly virus—until we could; we could not nationalise the banking system—until we could; we could not reorient our entire manufacturing base towards building aircraft—until we could; we could not build hundreds of thousands of homes fit for heroes—until we could.

In times of greatest peril, our country has been capable of doing big things. We still can. Britain used to punch above its weight in the world. We still can. Each generation used to provide a better future for the next. We still can. Another member of the cancer club, the late, great Bowelbabe, Dame Deborah James, famously said:

“take risks; love deeply; have no regrets; and always, always have rebellious hope.”

It is with that in mind—and with the belief that we can and must do better, with deep love for my party and my country, with no regrets, and with rebellious hope—that I have left the Government. The Labour party was elected to deliver real change. We still can.

[Several hon. Members rose—]

Oral Answers to Questions

Wes Streeting Excerpts

Monday 25th March 2019 Commons Chamber

[Bill Wiggin (North Herefordshire) (Con)]

16. What steps he is taking to encourage more commercial organisations to participate in the armed forces covenant.

[Wes Streeting (Ilford North) (Lab)]

17. What steps his Department is taking to ensure the effective delivery of the armed forces covenant.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Tobias Ellwood)]

The armed forces covenant not only obliges Government Departments to recognise their duty to support armed forces personnel and veterans and their families, but encourages organisations and businesses across the country to do the same. I am pleased to say that there are now more than 3,300 signings, and we are signing about 25 companies or organisations each week.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Ellwood]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for the work that she has done on this issue as chair of the APPG. I should be more than delighted to meet her. It is important that we carry out the necessary scrutiny and are seen to be doing so, and that we do what is best for our veterans.

[Wes Streeting]

I am grateful to the Minister for his answer to the question from my hon. Friend the Member for Midlothian (Danielle Rowley), but does he not agree that when 0.01% of the NHS budget is spent on veterans’ mental health care, we have a great deal further to go? Will he at least endorse fully the recommendations of the Defence Committee on the issue?

[Mr Ellwood]

I was delighted to address the Committee on this matter only the other day, and to discuss it. It is absolutely true that we need to follow the money. We know that £21 billion has been given to the NHS to cover the next 10 years, of which a proportion will go to mental health. The Prime Minister herself wants to see parity between mental and physical health and wellbeing, so let us make sure that we can identify where those funds are. I hope that I, or the Defence Secretary, will have a meeting with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care as soon as possible to see what more can be done.

--- Later in debate ---

[Stuart Andrew]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on his work in this area and welcome the fact that GE Aviation’s investment is creating this new propeller facility. It will form part of the defence industry’s massive contribution to the south-west and provides the jobs on which many people rely.

[Wes Streeting (Ilford North) (Lab)]

T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

[The Secretary of State for Defence (Gavin Williamson)]

In this, the 50th year of the continuous at sea nuclear deterrent, the MOD is proud to continue to protect the security and stability not only of our nation, but of our allies. I will be attending the commemoration service at Westminster Abbey on 3 May, and I hope that many colleagues from both sides of the House will also be able to commemorate this important milestone.

[Wes Streeting]

In response to the Defence Secretary’s speech to RUSI on 11 February, particularly his remarks about the deployment of HMS Queen Elizabeth to the South China sea, George Osborne described it as a throwback to an era of “gunboat diplomacy” and Lord Dannatt described the Defence Secretary as wanting to

“use defence as a platform to develop his own career”.

Will the Defence Secretary therefore take this opportunity to explain exactly what he means by that deployment and to say whether he has managed to have discussions with the Chancellor about the finer points of international diplomacy and trade?

[Gavin Williamson]

As I am sure the hon. Gentleman is aware, we are the second-largest investor in south-east Asia. We have strong and deep links with many allies, including Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and, of course, the United States. It is therefore perfectly natural and expected to continue to operate and exercise alongside our allies.

Oral Answers to Questions

Wes Streeting Excerpts

Monday 26th November 2018 Commons Chamber

[Louise Haigh (Sheffield, Heeley) (Lab)]

16. What recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the adequacy of funding for his Department.

[Wes Streeting (Ilford North) (Lab)]

19. What recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the adequacy of funding for his Department.

[The Secretary of State for Defence (Gavin Williamson)]

I hold regular discussions with the Chancellor. The additional £1.8 billion being invested in the defence budget reaffirms our commitment to protecting national security.

--- Later in debate ---

[Wes Streeting]

The £1 billion from the Chancellor does not nearly make up for the £10 billion of real-terms cuts to the defence budget between 2010 and 2017. What more does the Secretary of State plan to do to ensure that his Department, and by extension our armed forces, are adequately resourced to tackle the emerging and changing threats facing our country?

[Gavin Williamson]

If we look at the choice between where Labour would take our defence policy and where we would take it, I know which would give Britain the greatest security. I think that all Government Members recognise the important role that our armed forces play, which is why we will keep investing in them.

Combat Air Strategy

Wes Streeting Excerpts

Tuesday 17th July 2018 Commons Chamber

[Gavin Williamson]

This is about securing those jobs and those skills not just for the next decade, but for the decade from 2040 onwards. My hon. Friend makes an important point, because this is part of our wider industrial strategy. Defence leads: for every £1 that is invested in defence, £4 is generated. We spend 2% of our GDP on defence, yet it accounts for 8% of our economy. It is vital for the prosperity of Britain to continue to invest in defence.

[Wes Streeting (Ilford North) (Lab)]

The UK’s defence aerospace industry is vital for the future of our economy, providing higher-quality, high-skilled jobs up and down the country. What does it say about this Government’s ability to protect those jobs and that industry when one of the Secretary of State’s own Ministers resigns over the Government’s shambolic handling of Brexit negotiations? What are the implications of that shambolic handling not just for his Department and the industries it is supposed to champion, but for every other sector of our economy?

[Gavin Williamson]

Britain has been a world leader in this sector, and we continue to be a world leader in this sector. We continue to deliver the jobs and prosperity that are absolutely vital and on which so many of our constituents depend. That is what Tempest is about, and that is what we are delivering. We are going to make sure that the Royal Air Force has the finest, the greatest and the most technologically advanced fighter jet to ensure Britain continues to remain safe.

Oral Answers to Questions

Wes Streeting Excerpts

Monday 5th March 2018 Commons Chamber

[Gavin Williamson]

Our armed forces play an incredibly important role in training rangers to stop the vile trade of ivory poaching. I am very pleased that we have been able to extend the scheme and continue the amazing work with Governments across Africa to ensure that majestic animals such as elephants are protected.

[Wes Streeting (Ilford North) (Lab)]

T3. Uniformed cadets, like 241 Squadron air cadets in my constituency, do an amazing job of producing well-rounded, empowered young people. I invite the Minister to look at the funding provided across government to our uniformed cadets, which clearly offer much better value for money than some other Government-funded youth programmes.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Tobias Ellwood)]

I hope that the hon. Gentleman will join me in paying tribute to the 126,000 cadets that we have in this country. Being a cadet provides a wonderful introduction to our armed forces and what they can do, giving confidence to youngsters. I will certainly look at that individual case. Charities are involved in different ways in supporting our cadets and I am happy to meet the hon. Gentleman afterwards.

Oral Answers to Questions

Wes Streeting Excerpts

Monday 27th November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I gently point out to the House that although very engaging, the exchanges have been rather protracted, so progress is slow. There are lots of very important questions on the Order Paper that I am keen to reach, so let us try to speed up.

[Wes Streeting (Ilford North) (Lab)]

5. What discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for International Trade on promoting Hawk aircraft overseas.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Harriett Baldwin)]

The Ministry of Defence and the Department for International Trade continue to work closely with BAE Systems to promote and secure sales of the world-leading Hawk advanced jet training aircraft.

[Wes Streeting]

I recently had the opportunity to talk to Unite and GMB members about the importance of a consistent flow of orders to maintain jobs throughout the supply chain for Hawk. In a recent debate on defence aerospace strategy, the Minister referred to 12 Hawk aircraft for Qatar. Has this figure changed from the six initially announced? Could she update us with progress on getting further orders on the books?

[Harriett Baldwin]

I can absolutely confirm that the Government are working wholeheartedly in every way they can to ensure that we put that order from the Government of Qatar on the order books by the end of the year. That includes—

[Wes Streeting]

Is it six or 12?

[Harriett Baldwin]

I can write to the hon. Gentleman if there is some confusion. I thought it was six.