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Defence in the World

It is an unusual experience for a Minister of State responding to such a debate to begin his speech with 55 minutes remaining. I hasten to add that I will not take that length of time for my summing up. In general terms, we have had a good and well informed debate. I pay tribute to all those heroic men and women who have lost their lives in recent years serving our national interest. We are and will always be enormously in their debt. We began with a contribution from the hon. Member for Woodspring (Dr. Fox), who leads for the Opposition, and who is not in his place. For once, there was quite a bit in his speech with which I agreed. He talked about the situation in Musa Qala, the fact that we are not downgrading the UK effort—I agree with him in that regard—and the fact that we leave Musa Qala in much better shape than we inherited it. I visited Musa Qala three or four weeks ago for the second time in six months and saw for myself the significant improvement in security and safety for the local citizens, which would not have been possible without the efforts of our troops. The hon. Gentleman argued that 9/11 had completely altered the western view of global security. He is right. He also said that the state-on-state threat to our security continues, that nuclear proliferation is a real threat and danger, and particularly that we cannot assume that future threats will mirror today's conflicts. As we move from the Green Paper to the general election and to the strategic defence review, we need to bear that in mind. It was at that point that the consensus began to break down, although not entirely. The hon. Gentleman made some interesting comments on the role of the French, the Germans and the European Union. He said—I think I quote him accurately—that there may be a role for the European Union where NATO cannot or will not act. At that moment, the look of sheer horror on the face of the hon. Member for Stone (Mr. Cash) was a sight to behold. There was then a contribution from the hon. Member for North Essex (Mr. Jenkin), who reinforced the scepticism about a relationship with France. The hon. Member for Woodspring went on, erroneously and unjustifiably, to launch a critique of our record on funding the armed forces. He said—I am quoting—that we cannot afford five more years of the Government's stewardship of defence. I say with conviction that, on the facts, he is wrong. Every comprehensive spending review period has increased defence spending in real terms under this Government. Overall, we have seen a 10 per cent. Real-terms increase in Ministry of Defence funding. In addition, we have seen £17 billion through the Treasury reserve for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Let us look—my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State referred to this in his opening address—at what the present Government have done in the past 13 years, and compare and contrast that with what happened in the 18 years that the Conservatives were in power. I have looked at the real-terms changes in defence funding during those 18 years, and regularly there were significant, draconian real-terms cuts to the defence budget: in 1987-88, a 3.88 per cent. real-terms cut; in 1988-89, a 4.3 per cent. real-terms cut; in 1993-94, a 5.5 per cent. real-terms cut.