Armed Forces (Redundancies) Debate

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Department: Ministry of Defence

Armed Forces (Redundancies)

Lord Walney Excerpts
Tuesday 15th February 2011

(13 years, 2 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Liam Fox Portrait Dr Fox
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As I have said, the Army is already undertaking an investigation of its own, and I expect that to conclude fully in a matter of days. The inquiry will draw the appropriate lessons on whether the chain of command was appropriately followed in this case. It would be appropriate for the inquiry to come to conclusions, and not for us, without the full information, to do so.

Lord Walney Portrait John Woodcock (Barrow and Furness) (Lab/Co-op)
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The Secretary of State’s tone in responding to the shadow Secretary of State was surprisingly strident. Just so that the House is clear, he is not actually blaming the previous, Labour Government for this abominable failure in procedure, is he?

Liam Fox Portrait Dr Fox
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I would hate the hon. Gentleman to get the wrong impression. What I am blaming the Labour Government for is the financial mismanagement that left a black hole of £38 billion in the MOD budget, and a massive deficit to get rid of. Without those, we would not have had to make redundancies of this scale in the first place.