Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between John Healey and Ian Sollom

Monday 1st June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Ian Sollom (St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire) (LD)]

1. What steps he is taking to improve recruitment and retention in the armed forces.

[The Secretary of State for Defence (John Healey)]

May I start by condemning the reckless Russian drone strike on Romania early on Friday morning? We stand with Romania and all our NATO allies. I have commissioned UK options for contributing to any NATO-led actions to strengthen Romania, should that be required.

The previous Government left forces recruitment and retention in crisis. They set and missed targets every year for 14 years. We are renewing the nation’s commitment to those who serve through the biggest pay rise for over 20 years, free childcare for forces families across the UK, and the biggest upgrade to forces housing in a generation. Armed forces numbers are now growing; that is part of the transformation of defence through the defence investment plan, which, I can tell the House, the Prime Minister is determined to publish before the NATO summit.

[Ian Sollom]

I thank the Minister for his answer—[Interruption.]

Ukraine and Wider Operational Update

Debate between John Healey and Ian Sollom

Wednesday 7th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Ian Sollom (St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire) (LD)]

The Secretary of State will know that the NATO Secretary-General said in September that we must “prevent spreading” NATO forces “too thinly”. Could he provide some reassurance to the House on the implications of this potential deployment for the Joint Expeditionary Force and our leadership of that in Estonia?

[John Healey]

I hope the reassurance that the hon. Gentleman asks for can be provided by the fact that SACEUR has been at the heart of the discussions and developments, close to the military planning for the deployment of the multinational force for Ukraine, and an important figure in the discussions of security guarantees.