Debates between Martin Docherty-Hughes and Michael Gove during the 2019-2024 Parliament

European Union: Future Relationship

Debate between Martin Docherty-Hughes and Michael Gove
Thursday 27th February 2020

(4 years, 8 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Michael Gove Portrait Michael Gove
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I agree 100%. Spot on. Totally correct.

Martin Docherty-Hughes Portrait Martin Docherty-Hughes (West Dunbartonshire) (SNP)
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Yesterday, as a member of the Select Committee on Defence, I heard from Professor Malcolm Chalmers of the Royal United Services Institute that

“the risks to the UK’s essential alliance relationships are greater now than they have been for many decades.”

Can the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster advise the House on why the statement on our future relationship with the European Union says absolutely nothing about maintaining and improving defence?

Michael Gove Portrait Michael Gove
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When it comes to maintaining and improving defence, we have a network of relationships, including, of course, our membership of NATO—the strongest and most durable alliance for freedom the world has ever known. When it comes to defending this country, one of most perilous things we could do would be to follow the Scottish Government’s approach of breaking up the United Kingdom and of unilateral nuclear disarmament. I am afraid that the SNP’s position on defence, like its position on so many other issues, would mean the Scottish people were less safe. That is the direct result of its ideological attachment to separation.