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Defence in the UK

As usual, the debate has been wide ranging. The contributions were not only well informed but covered interesting subjects. Today, on the Conservative Front Bench we saw the neo-cons versus the Cameroons. The hon. Member for New Forest, East (Dr. Lewis) is a strong advocate for the nuclear deterrent—I would recommend to anyone his pamphlet arguing the case for it. It would be interesting if there were a Conservative Government—I shall not say that I look forward to the day—and the hon. Member for Aldershot (Mr. Howarth) was at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the hon. Member for New Forest, East at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, with the hon. Member for Woodspring (Dr. Fox) running some bit of Government equivalent to a Siberian power station. Today, the Conservatives have set out clearly that the nuclear deterrent is not up for negotiation. The reason that clarity is important is that sad anoraks, such as me, who read ConservativeHome can see that the central hierarchy of the party are trying to test the water—to find out whether negotiation would be possible. The clarity we have heard today is very important. The hon. Member for Woodspring made an interesting speech and, in his usual way, covered a large number of subjects. He seems to think that the Navy is separate from the rest of the defence budget. He talked about the Navy being betrayed. I want to reinforce the point made by my right hon. Friend the Minister for the Armed Forces. We have the largest building programme ever for the Royal Navy—£14 billion over the next 10 years. That is a clear commitment from the Government to the Navy. It is important to ensure not only that we equip the Navy with the ships it requires but that we have the skills to produce those ships in UK yards. Resources were mentioned. I look forward to hearing debates on the issue as the election gets closer. The hon. Member for Aldershot is clear about his position; he said on "Newsnight" on 6 September 2007 that it was absolutely crystal clear that if his party came into office on the next day, they would spend more money on defence. Clearly, that line has now changed. I think that when it comes to the defence budget, we will see more confusion of the sort that we saw on tax policy this week in the Conservative party.