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Defence Procurement

We made it very clear that we regarded that as a matter for the Attorney-General, as the Law Officer of the Crown with responsibility, and that we would accept his judgment. The present disastrous state of affairs is the effect of 11 years of stewardship, or lack of it, by the Prime Minister—first in his role of Chancellor, when he failed to fund the armed forces to the extent necessary to meet the Government's own strategic defence review requirements, let alone current operations, and now in his role as First Lord of the Treasury, where his understanding of the military is so inadequate that he believes that the Secretary of State for Defence can double up in his spare time as Secretary of State for Scotland, with the modest task of saving his colleagues' seats from the ravenous Scottish National party hordes. That constitutes no assault on the present incumbent, the right hon. Member for Kilmarnock and Loudoun (Des Browne), for whom I have great affection and who has sought to fulfil his impossible task to the very best of his considerable ability; but wherever I go, I find that the military feel the insult keenly. They believe that the political class does not value them. The defence of the realm and its wider interests across the globe is the first duty of any Government. The extent of this Government's failure to provide for both the present and the medium term has been, to an extent, masked by the extraordinary professionalism, courage and dedication of the men and women of Her Majesty's armed forces, the support of their families, and the hard work and ingenuity of the 300,000 people in Britain's defence industry who are engaged in the noble cause of providing equipment for the front line. They deserve better, and I trust that the incoming Conservative Government will not let them down.