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Defence Procurement

I will not give way now, because I have too little time. I am sorry to say that the debate began with a personal attack on me, and an attack on the Government’s record. It was a bit rich for the Conservatives to start talking about the apparent failures of this Government in the field of defence procurement, given that we have an extremely proud record and have done so much in relation to armoured vehicles, naval systems and air power—to which I have just referred—and given their dismal record when they were last in power. They presided over some of the greatest procurement disasters incurred not just in this country but, probably, anywhere. What about Annington Homes? What about the Chinook? How utterly incompetent it was to place that contract without asking where the airworthiness certificates would come from! What about Nimrod? In every business school it is cited as an example of a bad procurement contract. The Tory party was responsible for those failures. It is a bit rich! We have had to clear up the mess; we have inherited the legacy of Tory incompetence. It was claimed that I did not say the same when I was a Tory myself—sadly and mistakenly. I am proud to have changed my coat now, by the way, and if the hon. Member for Aldershot calls me a turncoat every day, I shall be delighted. I am wearing the right coat. I am wearing the coat of the party that now represents all the things that I have believed in for as long as I have been in politics. [Interruption.] Oh, yes. What is more, I did say the same about defence. Not only did I say the same about defence, but I wrote the same about defence during the period of the last Tory Government. I have been able to put my hand on a pamphlet that I co-authored with a number of colleagues in 1995. It deals with the Tory Government’s record, and it proves that I was saying the same things then. It is an interesting pamphlet. Let me read out the names of the colleagues who co-authored it. There is the hon. Member for Canterbury (Mr. Brazier), who, then as now, was acknowledged to be a great expert in military matters. He was the guy who conceived the project and chaired our meetings. There is Davies: he is number two on the list, because he drafted most of the material. There are Allison, Duncan Smith, Fishburn, Garnier, Goodson-Wickes, Hargreaves, Mans, Robathan—it is an interesting group of characters—Taylor and Riddick. And what did we say in 1995? We said that a vacuum in strategic policy, combined with large reductions in defence spending, had led to severe overstretch and to a fall in morale in our armed forces. We went on to say that morale was at an historic low point, and that defence procurement was thoroughly inadequate. All that was said in 1995. The hon. Member for West Chelmsford (Mr. Burns) made the disgraceful suggestion that I was talking rubbish—or, he implied, uttering an untruth—when I said what I had said at that time was exactly what I am saying now about the Tory party, and I think that he should apologise.