Oral Answers to Questions

Connor Rand Excerpts

Monday 1st June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Louise Sandher-Jones]

I thank the hon. Member for highlighting the quite good provision in the armed forces. I think particularly of the maternity pay, which is not always the first thing on people’s minds when they join the armed forces. We offer a range of benefits, beyond pay, to our armed forces recruits when they begin a career. He is absolutely right that we should highlight the package in the round. As someone who benefited from it, I know that there are some excellent things in there.

[Mr Connor Rand (Altrincham and Sale West) (Lab)]

5. What assessment he has made of the level of threat from Russia. 

[Gordon McKee (Glasgow South) (Lab)]

17. What assessment he has made of the level of threat from Russia.

[Mr Rand]

This Government have rightly increased military support to Ukraine to its highest ever level. That is vital not just for Ukraine’s security, but for ours. Our leadership on this issue places us in the firing line of an increasingly desperate Putin. With the stark warning from GCHQ last week that our nation is being relentlessly targeted by Russian aggression, does the Secretary of State agree that as well as rightly increasing defence spending, we must unite against Russia by seeking a closer relationship with our most important and reliable allies in the European Union?

[John Healey]

I agree with my hon. Friend that we are right to seek a closer relationship with the European Union, which has an important contribution to make, from within a “NATO first” framework. That is why, last year, we signed the security and defence partnership with the European Union. The Prime Minister has said that we are looking to join the European Union’s Ukraine loan scheme, so that we can provide more aid to Ukraine, backed by the very best British companies, producing the best British kit for Ukrainian warfighters.