Deployment to Mali Debate

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Department: Ministry of Defence

Deployment to Mali

Bob Russell Excerpts
Tuesday 29th January 2013

(11 years, 3 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Bob Russell Portrait Sir Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD)
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In this increasingly troubled world, will the Secretary of State reflect on whether it is prudent and in Britain’s interests to cut the size of our armed forces?

Lord Hammond of Runnymede Portrait Mr Hammond
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I can tell you my view on that, Mr Speaker. It is prudent to have a balanced defence budget and to be able properly to equip the troops that we have and seek to use to defend this nation’s security. I am afraid that given the state of the defence budget that we inherited from Labour, we have taken the only responsible set of actions that we could take in order to secure Britain’s defence for the future.