MoD: "Angry" Labour defence secretary lambasts ex-Tory regime for state of Royal Navy, British Army and RAF

Defence secretary John Healey challenged the previous government’s record on defence while taking questions about the Strategic Defence Review (SDR) - which is scrutinising the state of the Royal Navy, British Army, RAF, and the nation’s overall security. Various questions the nation’s defence were debated in the House of Commons today (October 14).

Mr Healey, Labour MP for Rawmarsh and Conisbrough, told parliament “the review will ensure that the UK is both secure at home and strong abroad both now and in the years abroad”. The review is expected to be published in the first half of 2025. Emma Lewell-Buck, Labour MP for South Shields, said the review was necessary after previous government left the nation’s armed forces personnel, capability, and funding, depleted.

Mr Healy followed suit by stating: “I am really angry about the state of defence after the last government. Billion pound black holes in defence plans, service morale at record lows and army numbers set to fall below 70,000 next year. We will work night and day to make our forces better fit to fight and make the UK more secure.”

Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge, Conservative MP for South Suffolk, said the SDR must not be used as an excuse to delay increasing the defence budget to 2.5 per cent of GDP. The planned increase was announced by prime minister Sir Keir Starmer shortly after he assumed the role, but a defined deadline was never outlined. Mr Cartlidge said the Labour government in September stated the decision will be made “as soon as possible”, but last week, Mr Starmer said any funding boosts would be made “in due course”.

Mr Healey responded: “The government is totally committed to spending 2.5 per cent on defence to meet the increasing threat the country faces. The last time the country spent 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence was in 2010 under Labour, a level never matched in any of the 14 years his party was in power.” Mr Cartlidge said the previous Conservative government in 2010 had no option to increase the defence budget due to the financial state of the country left by Labour at the time.

He added that it’s very significant that if the wording is no longer “as soon as possible” and is now “in due course”. Mr Cartlidge said: “If he were to tell us he’s fighting hard with the treasury to go to 2.5 per cent of the budget at the end of this month, he would have our full support, is that what he’s doing?” Mr Healey said: “They only produced their unfunded plan for 2.5 per cent on defence four weeks before they called the election. His former boss defence secretary Ben Wallace told the truth about their record in government, when he said to this house ‘we’ve hollowed out and underfunded our armed forces since 2010.” Luke Pollard MP, parliamentary under-secretary of state for defence, said the SDR will ensure that defence is central to security and the economic growth and prosperity of our homeland.

Politicians raised a number of issues in parliament and asked if the SDR would resolve them, including a “recruiting and retention crisis” which is resulting a lack of personnel for exercises and other tasks. Ian Romme, Liberal Democrat MP for North Devon, said all three branches of the armed forces armed forces have a long backlog of new recruits trying to get through medical assessment.

Mr Healy said: “I’ve said that this strategic defence review will place people at its heart, and we will place people at the heart of our defence plans. We follow a period of 14 years in which the previous government’s own recruitment targets were set and missed in all forces every year. We have a recruitment and retention crisis, and no plan for the future can deal with that without sorting out the recruitment.”

He added: “I want this Strategic defence review to be not just the government’s, but Britain’s defence review. We’re consulting serving military, veterans, industry, academic experts and all parties in this house.” Problems with training personnel have been hitting the headlines, with RAF pilots becoming frustrated and leaving the service due to a lack of training opportunities to progress their career. Stuart Anderson, Conservative MP for South Shropshire, said training is essential for military operations as it ensures readiness, lethality and survivability. He asked if cuts will be made to training budgets during this and next financial year.

Mr Pollard said: “The reason that there is a severe financial pressure on this side is because this side of the house was left with £22bn worth of financial blackhole by his own party. Let me be absolutely clear, supporting our armed forces to train, be the best, deter aggression and defeat it if necessary, is a priority for this government. Despite the economic circumstances that his party passed to our party, we will take steps to make sure our armed forces have what they need.”