Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
6 July 2026
Topical Questions
On the day of its publication in June 2025, the headline promise of Labour’s strategic defence review was a commitment to buy
“up to 12 attack submarines”.
At the time, the Labour Government could not answer the question of exactly how many submarines that meant in practice, but they assured us th…
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
6 July 2026
2 contributions
Russia: Level of Threat to UK
May I echo your sentiments, Mr Speaker, about Sir George Howarth, and pass on the Opposition’s condolences to his family and friends? Also, for their first oral questions, I welcome the new Ministers to the Front-Bench team.
Today’s reports of Russian provocation illustrate the scale of the threat …
This is not good enough. The defence investment plan has completely unravelled because, despite it being many months late, the Government still have not worked out where they are going to get the money from. Either the Secretary of State knowingly signed off a defence investment plan with a £5 billi…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
30 June 2026
Defence Investment Plan
I thank the Secretary of State for advance sight of his statement.
After months and months of delay, we finally have the defence investment plan, but it is quite simply a case of too little, too late. It is too little because there is virtually no more cash than there was in the plan that led the p…
Commons
Proceedings
23 June 2026
25 contributions
Defence Spending and Readiness
I beg to move,
That this House regrets the chaos in Government which means a temporary Prime Minister will be attending the NATO summit; further regrets that at such a dangerous time globally this country is not being properly governed; calls on the Government to spend 3% of GDP on defence by the e…
The DRI Minister admitted in his point of order yesterday that what he said last Monday was not true. He said that the Secretary of State
“arrived back in London from Windsor earlier that day, prior to the UQ.” —[Official Report, 22 June 2026; Vol. 788, c. 71.]
That begs the question: why did the …
+23 more contributions in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
15 June 2026
Russian Shadow Fleet
I thank the Defence Secretary for advance sight of his statement and welcome him to his new post. He had a distinguished military career and, as Security Minister, will have had a foretaste of the operational demands of his new job. I will be turning to the circumstances that brought him to that pos…
Commons
Proceedings
10 June 2026
2 contributions
Defence Investment Plan
(Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the defence investment plan.
I am grateful to Mr Speaker for granting this urgent question. Before I begin, may I pay tribute to the three Royal Navy personnel who tragically died in a helicopter crash last week? We offer our heartfelt condolences to their families from this side of the House.
After months of delay, there has …
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
1 June 2026
2 contributions
Topical Questions
I echo the Secretary of State on the sad news from Iraq and, on behalf of the Opposition, send condolences to the family concerned. It is very sad news indeed.
I have a simple question for the Secretary of State: has the Treasury signed off the defence investment plan?
No wonder the defence investment plan is so late: the Labour Government still have not worked out how to pay for it. The good news is that others have. Lord Robertson, a former Labour Defence Secretary, has said:
“We cannot defend Britain with an ever-expanding welfare budget”,
and Tony Blair hims…
Commons
Debate
20 May 2026
12 contributions
Defence Readiness
I beg to move amendment (o), at the end of the Question to add:
“but respectfully regret the absence of a Defence Readiness Bill from the Gracious Speech, and the 10 month delay to the publication of the Defence Investment Plan; call on the Government to bring forward both as a matter of urgency; f…
I am always grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his very good interventions. He has hit the nail on the head. This is not just about veterans, as important as they are; it is about the wider impact on recruitment. Indeed, hon. Members do not have to take my word for it, or his. In November last year,…
+10 more contributions in this session
Commons
Proceedings
24 March 2026
16 contributions
Defence
I beg to move,
That this House regrets that the Defence Investment Plan has still not been published despite the Government promising Parliament that the plan would be published in Autumn 2025; notes that the Government’s delay has frozen procurement and has stopped the UK from learning lessons fro…
Maybe the hon. Lady knows when we will get it; I give way.
+14 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
23 March 2026
Middle East
May I thank the Secretary of State for advance sight of his statement, and for the briefing I received from his officials this afternoon? I join him in putting on record my utter condemnation of the arson attack committed in Golders Green last night. On behalf of the Opposition, I offer our sympathy…
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
16 March 2026
2 contributions
Defence Investment Plan
I am not sure that the Secretary of State heard the question from my hon. Friend the Member for Solihull West and Shirley (Dr Shastri-Hurst), which was incredibly simple: will the defence investment plan be published before the House rises on 26 March?
There is a reason why that date matters: it is the date when purdah commences before the Scottish elections. Then we will have the Welsh and local elections. It is our understanding—and the Secretary of State is welcome to correct this—that the defence investment plan cannot be published during purd…
Commons
Debate
9 March 2026
Middle East: Defence
I thank the Secretary of State for advance sight of his statement, and for the briefing that I received from his officials this morning.
May I begin by offering condolences, on behalf of the Opposition, to the families of the seven US soldiers killed in the ongoing action against Iran? I join the S…
Commons
Debate
4 March 2026
6 contributions
Ministry of Defence
Shocking!
The hon. Gentleman is always generous in giving way on this point. I hope he has done his homework because I pointed out the last time I asked him that he would have to repay those bonds to the bondholders two years later. Where would that £20 billion come from?
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
25 February 2026
2 contributions
Diego Garcia and British Indian Ocean Territory
You are the relevant Minister!
Further to that point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. There is concern, among Opposition Members at least, that we heard repeatedly from the Minister that he was not the correct Minister to respond to the questions we asked. Our understanding procedurally is that Ministers are accountable to Parliam…
Commons
Oral Questions
10 February 2026
2 contributions
Ministry of Defence: Palantir Contracts
(Urgent question): To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on his Department’s contracts with Palantir.
Thank you for granting this urgent question, Mr Speaker. Before I turn to the detail, let me say that the Mandelson scandal is truly shocking. When debating these matters, it is incumbent on all of us to remember the victims of Epstein’s crimes.
Following Peter Mandelson’s sacking as US ambassador,…
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
2 February 2026
2 contributions
Topical Questions
Last August, the Deputy Prime Minister of Mauritius said that when his Government take sovereignty over the Chagos islands, nuclear weapons could no longer be stored there. In last week’s Chagos debate, in answer to our repeated questioning as to whether that was true, the Minister for Defence Readi…
It is interesting that the Secretary of State passed responsibility for answering the question to the DRI Minister next to him, but the Minister did not answer the question. This is of profound national importance because, for us and the United States, these are our most important and sensitive capa…
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
2 February 2026
Support for Defence SMEs
I associate the Opposition with the condolences expressed to the families of Lord Wallace, Lord Flight and, of course, Captain Philip Muldowney.
Last June, from the Dispatch Box, the Secretary of State promised to deliver the defence investment plan by the autumn. He failed to do so. At our previou…
Commons
Debate
28 January 2026
9 contributions
British Indian Ocean Territory
rose—
This is a fundamental point. The most sensitive part of our military is the nuclear deterrent; it is critical to the defence of ourselves and our allies. The United States is also nuclear armed. We are a naval nuclear nation, and the base at Diego Garcia is a critical naval base in strategic terms. …
+7 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
26 January 2026
21 contributions
Armed Forces Bill
It is a privilege to open for the Opposition on Second Reading of the Armed Forces Bill, given the global circumstances in which we find ourselves, and the sense that the ability of our armed forces to stand up to renewed threats has not been at issue to this degree for many years.
Before turning t…
I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for his service in Afghanistan, and that of other colleagues present in the Chamber. He is absolutely right. When we debated the President’s remarks about Greenland, I made the point on the media round that Denmark had the highest per capita losses in Afghanista…
+19 more contributions in this session
Commons
Proceedings
12 January 2026
New Medium Helicopter Contract
I congratulate the hon. Member for Yeovil (Adam Dance) on tabling this urgent question. It was a real pleasure to visit the Leonardo factory last September and witness how critical it is to employment in his constituency. Visiting the factory, one gets a powerful sense of Britain’s rotary history, b…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
7 January 2026
Ukraine and Wider Operational Update
I begin by thanking the Secretary of State for giving me advance sight of his statement, and for the briefing he provided to me and other parliamentarians on today’s operation. As the Leader of the Opposition said earlier, there should always be a statement to Parliament when UK troops are committed…
Commons
Debate
5 January 2026
2 contributions
Northern Ireland Troubles Bill: Armed Forces Recruitment and Retention
(Urgent Q uestion): To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the impact of the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill on armed forces recruitment and retention.
Our legacy Act ensured that those who served bravely in Northern Ireland could sleep soundly in their beds at night, knowing that they would not be hauled before the courts for protecting all of us from terrorism decades ago. But when our Act was challenged in the courts, instead of appealing, Labou…
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
15 December 2025
Topical Questions
In May, the Secretary of State said from the Government Dispatch Box that the UK-EU defence pact “opens the door” to the €150 billion EU defence fund. From this Dispatch Box in June, I warned that what the Secretary of State was actually doing was surrendering our precious sovereign fishing grounds …
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
15 December 2025
2 contributions
Defence Spending: Economic Growth
On behalf of the Opposition, I join you in expressing our total condemnation of the horrific Bondi Beach terrorist attack, Mr Speaker. We must stand united in this House against antisemitism in all its forms. May I also offer our condolences to all affected both at Bondi and at Brown University, and…
Is the Secretary of State seriously saying that he does not know his diary for the rest of the week? He could ask one of the other Ministers on the Front Bench, or one of the special advisers or officials. Surely he knows whether later this week—on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday—he will be giving th…