SHADOW Defence Minister Mark Francois has said there is a “lack of urgency” from the government towards the defence of Britain.
Speaking on GB News, Francois said: “This was an opposition day debate where we get to choose the subject for debate. And the whole essence of it was the lack of urgency within the government responding to the skies darkening internationally.
“So specifically the Strategic Defence Review that the government published last July, it says on page 43 that we must be prepared to fight, and if necessary, defeat a peer enemy, i.e. Russia or China with allies by 2035.
“So the official policy of His Majesty’s government is that we should be ready to fight a major war nine years from now. The Chief of the General Staff, the head of the Army, said we might have to fight the Russians in 2027. The First Sea Lord said well maybe a couple of years after that.
“So there’s a complete mismatch between the government’s preparedness and what our military experts are saying. And now, even the Defence Committee, which is an all party committee with a Labour MP chairing it, they went to a confidential briefing in the MoD on the 10 March. They came out, they issued a statement and said, We must go to 3% rapidly, 3% of GDP on defence, and certainly by the end of the Parliament, which is now the conservative position and has been for a year under Kemi.
“So the whole point of this debate was the government aren’t taking it seriously. We’ve been waiting nine months for a thing called the defence investment plan, which is the 10 year plan to buy new equipment. We were promised it by Christmas, faithfully promised it early in the new year. We’re in late March, no plan.
“When I was on the Defence Committee, I authored a report about procurement entitled, ‘It is broken, it’s time to fix it.’ I’ve railed against the problems with our procurement system on the governments of both colours. I mean, I could drown you in Hansards to that effect, but hopefully you’ll vouch for me.
“Look, there was another problem with the debate tonight, if I may, and this is a recurrent theme now. So we’re debating our preparedness for war: no Reform MP present throughout the whole thing.
“And this has happened several times lately. We debated the contribution of Commonwealth troops to the First World War – no Reform MP. We debated the war in Ukraine, no Reform MP.
“And unfortunately, they don’t have a defence spokesman. They don’t even have a Foreign Affairs spokesman. They are one club golfers. They are leading in the polls, I admit that, so they should have someone in the House of Commons who’s a defence expert, who can ask questions to the defence secretary. They don’t have anybody, that’s their choice, and they just don’t seem very interested in the defence of the realm.
“In a nutshell, we need to adapt a wartime mentality. We need to get rid of all the peacetime bureaucracy and red tape. We need to see what’s happening in Ukraine. We need to see what’s happening in the Gulf and we need to prepare.
“He who desires peace should prepare for war in order to deter it, and we’re not doing that. And our major criticism of the government tonight is there’s a complete lack of urgency about their military preparedness.
“Even the all party Defence Committee are criticising them, and the Prime Minister was torn to pieces at the liaison committee on this only yesterday.
“It’s too late, because the House rises on Thursday, and then we’re into purdah for the Scottish Parliament and Welsh elections. Because obviously, if they publish this plan, a lot of money will get spent in Scotland at Falsane.
“If they don’t publish it by Thursday, we won’t get it till the middle of May, or maybe even July.
“The PM should bang the Chancellor and the Defence Secretary’s heads together tonight and publish it before purdah kicks in, and legally, they can’t do it till May.
“For many years, the pollsters, once a month, would do this question: what are the biggest issues facing the country and you and your family? And defence barely would get into double figures.
“Now, in the latest polls, it’s third. It’s even above the NHS in some of the polls. And it’s not surprising, because if people see on their televisions night after night the war in Ukraine or a war in the Gulf, not unreasonably, they start to think, well, you know, I’m a bit worried about this. Are we as well prepared as we should be?
“So I think, now, public opinion is genuinely beginning to shift to a point where they want to see materially more spent on defence. Now, where do you get that from?
“Our policy is we should go back to the two child benefit cap. That saves about £3.2 billion pounds in a full tax year. Half of that should go to debt reduction and the other half should go to growing the size of the army. So that’s one very specific example.
“But there’s a wider point. We’re going to have to restrict welfare spending. Dennis Healey said in the 1970s, the Labour defence secretary, without defence and security, you have no hospitals, you have no schools, you have nothing.
“And it’s as true now as it was when Healey said it.”
