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Defence Policy

We have had a good and well-informed debate, which has demonstrated the strong degree of cross-party support that there is in the House for the armed forces. In every contribution, there has been a palpable recognition of the heroic, professional and hugely competent job our armed forces do on behalf of all of us. We are enormously in their debt. In the time available to me, I shall try to respond to as many as possible of the points made in the debate. The hon. Member for Woodspring (Dr. Fox) started by raising an issue that many other hon. Members have also raised: the position of the Territorial Army. Let me be very clear that the change was recommended by the service chiefs. It was accepted by Ministers because, as the Secretary of State rightly pointed out, Afghanistan is our main priority and it is crucial that we redeploy resources to that main priority, but that does not mean that any member of the reserves will be deployed without appropriate pre-deployment training. Let me make it clear that no reservist will have to pay for their pre-deployment training and there is no cut to that pre-deployment training. I say that clearly for the record because the Leader of the Opposition tried to paint a very different picture at Prime Minister's questions yesterday. It is important that we debate the issues based on the facts.