UK Defence Spending

Debate between James Sunderland and John Spellar

Thursday 24th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[James Sunderland]

Again, I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his intervention. My clear understanding as someone who has spent time working in Defence Equipment and Support and in the MOD is that European Union legislation prevented this country from preferring UK industry. We are now not beholden to the European Union. We can place contracts with whom we want, and we are seeing it right now with our new strategy.

[John Spellar]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[James Sunderland]

I will not give way, sorry.

[John Spellar]

Go on, give way.

[James Sunderland]

Go on then, if the right hon. Gentleman insists.

[John Spellar]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way, because he said something very significant—about his understanding when working at DE&S. He was saying that the culture there was to embody in their thinking the idea that they could not do it. In fact, that was totally untrue, and every other European country looked after its own industry. He has, very helpfully, exposed the deeply rotten culture inside the Ministry of Defence.

[James Sunderland]

My clear view is that the Ministry of Defence has the ability in law to extend contracts to whom it wants. We are no longer beholden to the European Union.

[John Spellar]

We never were.

[James Sunderland]

Yes, we were. I rest my case.

Let us look at what we have right now. We have Lightning II.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between James Sunderland and John Spellar

Monday 4th May 2020 Commons Chamber

[James Sunderland (Bracknell) (Con)]

What steps his Department is taking with the armed forces to support NHS trusts in their response to the covid-19 outbreak.

[John Spellar (Warley) (Lab)]

What support the armed forces are providing to civil authorities in response to the covid-19 outbreak.

[The Minister for Defence People and Veterans (Johnny Mercer) [V]]

As part of the national covid-19 response, Defence has supported NHS trusts in a variety of ways. We have distributed PPE and diagnostic equipment, we supported the planning, construction and staffing of Nightingale hospitals and we provided service personnel to conduct testing at regional and mobile testing sites. We also established a covid support force to assist wider Government, with 2,935 personnel in that force, as of this morning, currently deployed to assist civil authorities.