Lords
Oral Questions
17 September 2025
Israel: Royal College of Defence Studies
The noble Baroness is right: this is an unusual situation. It is a decision that has been made. I accept, to an extent, that this is in some way symbolic, but it is a reflection of the frustration and the deep concern that we have about the plight of people in Gaza, the decisions made by the Governm…
Lords
Debate
12 September 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I will speak in strong opposition to the Bill before us today, not only as a Member of your Lordships’ House but as a person, like all others—whatever side of the argument they are on, deeply committed to the values of compassion and dignity. I add to that the value and sanctity, both thro…
Lords
Proceedings
10 September 2025
Defence Industrial Strategy
My Lords, I place on record my support for the enormous amount of work that has clearly gone into the production of this industrial strategy. It is very evident that those at the Ministry of Defence have put their thinking caps on, done the hard work and constructed a plan based around defence’s cur…
Lords
Oral Questions
4 September 2025
UK Defence and Aerospace Facilities: Protests
I know that the British media are always concerned with accuracy, so let me start my remarks by saying that, whatever I say now, we have no intention of restoring the death penalty—let us get that out of the way first; whatever review may or may not take place, that is not on the table. The noble Ba…
Lords
Oral Questions
3 September 2025
Republic of Ireland: Defence Co-operation
The noble Baroness will know that there has been a memorandum of understanding between Ireland and the United Kingdom since 2015. Michael Fallon and Simon Coveney signed an agreement in 2015 on defence co-operation between the two countries, while respecting Ireland's neutrality and the fact that it…
Lords
Debate
23 July 2025
Armed Forces Commissioner Bill
My Lords, I will be exceedingly brief, but first I join with the Minister in stressing the importance of remembering VJ Day. We on these Benches share his view.
I congratulate both the noble Baroness, Lady Goldie, and the Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Coaker, and the team that he stands with, incl…
Lords
Proceedings
18 July 2025
Strategic Defence Review 2025
My Lords, today is a very welcome opportunity to consider the defence review. But I am sure that, as the debate develops, it will also cover the wider aspects, including the China audit, soft power and development policies. They all need to be integrated, as they all have a part to play in keeping o…
Lords
Proceedings
16 July 2025
Afghanistan
My Lords, I am very grateful to the Minister for taking the time to speak with me extensively before the Statement. I thank him and his colleague, the Secretary of State for Defence in the other place, for the tone they have adopted. I join the Secretary of State and my honourable friend the shadow …
Lords
Committee Stage
15 July 2025
Armed Forces Act 2006 (Continuation) Order 2025
My Lords, I thank all the noble Lords who participated in the debate, particularly the noble Baronesses, Lady Smith and Lady Goldie. They expressed their support—I know it is true for every single Member of the Committee and across the whole Chamber—for our Armed Forces and the recognition of their …
Lords
Oral Questions
14 July 2025
Tourism Levy
I do not know the position on that. I will happily check and write to the noble Baroness.
Lords
Oral Questions
7 July 2025
Armed Forces: Recruitment and Retention
The noble Baroness makes a really important point. If she waits a couple of weeks, my understanding is that a statement will be made by both the MoD and the Northern Ireland Office about how we might take this forward.
Lords
Oral Questions
3 July 2025
UK–EU Defence and Security Co-operation
The fundamental point is that you cannot access the Security Action for Europe framework unless you have a security partnership agreement with the EU. That is the gateway to it. The fact that the Government, on 19 May, agreed the security and defence partnership means that we now have a gateway to t…
Lords
Oral Questions
2 July 2025
NHS, Armed Forces and Civil Service Staff: Public Meetings
My Lords, before I joined your Lordships’ House, I ran an organisation called Index on Censorship. We should be very careful about the use of that word and how it applies here, versus the political dissidents I used to represent. The noble Baroness talks about something that everybody in this Chambe…
Lords
Oral Questions
1 July 2025
F35A and F35B Jets
I do. To reiterate and clarify, the procurement phase for the 48 F35Bs should, and will, end by March 2026. For the second procurement phase for the additional 12 F35As and the 15 F35Bs, which will give us 75 in total, our expectation is that they will be procured by 2033. It is important we meet th…
Lords
Oral Questions
1 July 2025
UK Weapons Systems
Let us deal with this, and I apologise to the House if this takes some time. The strategic deterrent, CASD, remains, as we have always had it, operationally independent and a UK weapon. As for the 12 F35As that the Government have announced, that forms part of NATO’s nuclear mission. The F35As are U…
Lords
Proceedings
30 June 2025
UK-Mauritius Agreement on the Chagos Archipelago
My Lords, I look forward to the maiden speech of the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Prentis of Banbury, and the valedictory speech of the noble Lord, Lord Boswell of Aynho. As a resident of Fringford, a small village not far away from either Banbury or Aynho, I have a personal interest in the hand…
Lords
Proceedings
26 June 2025
National Security Strategy
My Lords, I thank the Leader of the House for repeating the Statement. It was important that the Prime Minister should, in advance of the NATO summit, signal the priority the Government attach to defence and national security. On these Benches we support that approach, as we do the analysis by the G…
Lords
Oral Questions
19 June 2025
2 contributions
Israel and Iran
I think the Prime Minister has made it clear that we have sent flights to the region to ensure that our assets are fully protected and that we are fully prepared for any of the consequences. I hope that answers the noble Baroness’s question. I may have missed it—I was concentrating on reading—but if…
I think the Government fully understand that, which is why the Prime Minister has ensured that we are moving towards protecting those assets. The noble Baroness is absolutely right. Before the noble Lord, Lord Hannay—who is not in his place—asks me a question, of course we are urging all parties to …
Lords
Oral Questions
16 June 2025
Defence Industrial Base
The Prime Minister has been very clear about his commitment to ensure that the 62 recommendations are properly funded. The noble Baroness will know that the 3% is a commitment in the next Parliament, should the economic circumstances allow us to do so. The Prime Minister’s commitment is absolute, wi…
Lords
Proceedings
12 June 2025
2 contributions
Parliamentary Commercial Department
I am often surprised by this. Within our party groups, we usually get reports of significant decisions made by the commission. The minutes are published, with redacted items, on the internal website, so that information is available. I do not know if the noble Baroness is asking for more information…
I am sorry to interrupt, but I will try to press forward on that point. The Lord Speaker’s newsletter publishes some of the information. If the noble Baroness wants a quarterly report, rather than the minutes published after the meeting, that can be done, but it will be published in the same way as …
Lords
Debate
11 June 2025
3 contributions
Armed Forces Commissioner Bill
My Lords, I have listened carefully to the noble Baroness’s response, but I wonder if she could help me to understand a point raised by the Minister. It appears from proposed new subsection (1) that if a whistleblower is involved with the commissioner, the whistleblower controls the investigation. T…
My Lords, I rise in support of my noble friend’s Motion A, and I will be as brief as I can. The Bill, as my noble friend said, is a landmark step in the Government’s commitment to renew the nation’s contract with those women and men in our Armed Forces, and I happily re-declare my own interest in th…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
21 May 2025
Armed Forces Recruitment
I thank the noble Baroness. At the heart of the contract is making sure there is one clear oversight to ensure of where we have missing skills. So, if a recruit says, “I want to be a chef in the Navy”, but we actually have too many vacancies for chefs in the RAF, we will actively encourage them to c…
Lords
Debate
12 May 2025
Armed Forces Commissioner Bill
My Lords, I thank everyone for their short contributions. I have made one catastrophic error: I forgot to thank the Whips’ Office. I hastily put that on the record.
On a more serious note, I join the noble Baroness, Lady Smith in her tribute to Lord Etherton. I am sure that there will be another ti…
Lords
Debate
30 April 2025
7 contributions
Armed Forces Commissioner Bill
My Lords, in moving Amendment 3, I will also speak to Amendment 5. Both are in my name and that of my noble friend Lord Minto and are on the issue of whistleblowing. Close followers of this Bill will know that I raised this matter at Second Reading and by amendment in Committee.
Let me put a little…
My Lords, this has been a most useful debate, and I hope it has been helpful. I thank all who contributed, whatever their point of view, not least those who felt able to support my amendments. I thank the Minister for his continued engagement, and I know his sincere desire to explore the possibility…
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
30 April 2025
LGBT Veterans: Financial Recognition Scheme
I certainly will take that up. As the noble Baroness has said, these payments are exempt from income tax and from benefits. I am disturbed to hear from her that that does not appear to have happened in certain cases. My officials will read this, but I shall certainly take that back to the MoD and fo…